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- Anchorage Daily News (AK)
December 27, 2013
James Harold Whitman was born February 10, 1944, in Brainerd, MN to Gordon and Mabel Whitman.
Jim passed away December 22, 2013, from complications of Alzheimer's, at home at Peters Creek. He was 69 years old. Jim loved remembering roaming the woods, paddling around the lake, hunting, trapping, selling worms and milking cows on the farm.
As a boy he dreamed of running off to the wilds of Canada to live off the land. He was given the opportunity to work at the J.C. Penney store in Alaska in 1968 and eagerly accepted. He never looked back. He loved Alaska and everything it had to offer. Hunting and fishing were his biggest interests but soon snow machines, motorcycles and bowling became passions as well.
Jim found his calling as a salesman, from boats to cars to TV advertising to motorcycles. He enjoyed racing snow machines in the 70's, his crowning glory being to win the Big Lake 500. Jim hosted a local TV show in those days, the Snowmobile Alaska Show. He eventually settled into a job with Bureau of Land Management. When he took early retirement after 23 years, he pursued his hobby of knife making, becoming a premiere custom maker over the next 10 years. His exquisite skinners are highly rated by many of the top makers in the U.S. and certainly by his customers over the years.
Jim and family spent many years in the Montana Creek area 4-wheeling, hunting and camping and finally realized his dream of a log cabin there.
Jim is survived by his wife Mary; sons, Jamison (Staci) Whitman of Decatur, AL, Jason (Whitney) Whitman of Indian, Steven Womack of Anchorage; daughters Kristina (Randy) Chivers of Wasilla, and Shelly Thorn of Kirkland, WA; sister Florence McCarthy of Scottsdale, AZ; brother Leo (Rosie) of Brainerd, MN. Jim's grand kids were a never-ending source of amazement and humor in his later years.
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1944 - 2013 (69 years)
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