Ralph Andersen ’76

Ralph Andersen ’76 passed away on October 20, 2021, in Anchorage, Alaska. Ralph grew up near Dillingham in Clark’s Point, Alaska. He attended Chemawa Indian High School in Salem, Oregon, and Woodstock Union (Vermont) High School before matriculating at Dartmouth. He studied at Dartmouth for two years and ultimately graduated with a bachelor’s from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1979. Ralph resided in Alaska for the remainder of his life. For 20 years he lived in Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), where he worked as a special assistant to the mayor and then for the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and Iḷisaġvik College. He moved to Dillingham in 1998 and joined the Bristol Bay Native Association as its natural resources program manager before he became president and CEO in 2005. During that time he served on state boards related to subsistence, hunting, and commercial sport and as co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives. In 2015 Ralph organized former President Barack Obama’s visit to Dillingham. Obama and Ralph danced together to a Yup’ik beat in front of a crowd at the Dillingham gym. According to Ralph’s daughter, Doreen, President Obama said, “I’m not going up there alone, you come with me.” Ralph replied that he had never danced in his life, to which Obama replied, “I don’t care, you’re coming with me.” Ralph is survived by his wife, Flossie, and his children and grandchildren.