Nels Hitchcock Obituary

Dear Jason,

We are so sad about the loss of your father. We know you loved him deeply and will miss him beyond words.

Please know we are thinking of you with love and friendship.

Cousin Pamla (Spurgin) Hoch and Kay Hoch

My Dear Nels. It is heart wrenching to know you are gone from this life. It is so sad to think we will not get to laugh, share heart felt conversations, play music together or go dancing again. Remember when we played in the sand together as children? What wonderful trucks and trackers we made with the blocks of wood from Ben's mill. What great roadways we built in your yard around and under the trees. Then there were all the little rock dams we created in the small, slow channels that drifted past the family cabin at Caribou Creek. Those same blocks of wood made wonderful boats.
You were so exuberant and happy to have me to play with. Not many children were in your life at Caribou Creek. I was in awe of you, loved you and all the time we spent together. Sometimes, in your excitement you would topple me over sending me rolling down hill to arrive at the bottom in tears. You would dry my tears and we would be right back into our play.

Remember the time when you and aunt Kay were living in Bellingham and I came to visit? We were walking down the sidewalk and you shrieked when you thought I was going to unknowingly step on a row of ants. You said I needed to pay better attention and the ants had the same right to life as us.

Then there was the time some years later when I was alone and quite lost.
You took me under wing in a number of ways but the one that stands out the most is when you arrived where I was staying dressed in a fully cordinated beige sports jacket and slacks, matching shoes and socks, combed hair, looking like a million bucks and handsome as all get out! You said we were going dancing in down town Anchorage. The mode of transportation was your typical Nels heavy duty truck but you had cleaned out the mess and put paper on the seat so we wouldn't get dirty. What a night! We had such a great time. We finished off the evening by locking elbows, got a running start and slid across the icy parking lot in our shoes.

Our friendship and love was established on the innocence of children and no mater how old we were I always saw and enjoyed the child in you.

May we laugh, play and love each other through many more lifetimes.

Always Your Loving Cousin, Pamla Spurgin Hoch

Adios longtime friend. Met you when you came back to Alaska 40 years ago and never regretted it. What a journey you had here on earth! The last time we spoke was a few years ago, I didn't know we would run out of time before talking again. So if you don't mind, these Irish eyes would like to say; "May the roads rise to meet you. May the wind be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; The rain fall soft upon your fields And, until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand."
REB

Nels you will be missed, you are one of the first people I met when we moved yo ak, you are a character.... i love you...the Beans

For some reason…I have a need to put pen to paper when colossal events of life come along. Here’s my Nels thoughts:



We lost a dear friend this month in the passing of Mr. Nels Hitchcock. Our family is deeply saddened by the news and we’ll miss Nels very much.



I first met Nels in the early 80’s when I was a young man of 20 - and if first impressions could ever be misleading, Nels was the crown jewel of “not what he appears.” We worked together on Sheep Mountain and in Anchorage for a season - and as countless other young people could probably claim, Nels took me under his wing for the most entertaining mentoring a person could ever hope for.



Part mad scientist and ALL sourdough in a deceptive kind of way, Nels’ clothing, hair, whiskers, odor and delivery of wry and ironic humor could never reveal the depth of his personhood. He was a Don Quixote figure to me, versed in literature and culture, a master of mathematics, physics, architecture, surveying and well…the list is endless. I learned the lesson of “never judge a book by it’s cover” thanks to Nels. The paradox of his life versus his appearance has always delighted me…you just never know a person until you spend time with them.



My last encounter with Nels was a couple years ago and serendipitous in nature. I went up to Sheep Mountain to visit my family and had neither time nor intentions of visiting anyone else on the Mountain. The next morning I headed for town to catch a flight. As I came to the bottom of Caribou Canyon, I felt compelled to pull off the road before the bridge over Caribou Creek. For some reason it felt careless to drive past Nels’ homestead without stopping, so I sat and gazed up the valley and down Nels’ road along the creek.



When I first met Nels and lived on the mountain, we had spent a lot of time at his home and traveled up and down his treacherous road. A number of memories flooded my mind and I sat and soaked them in. I hadn’t been there five minutes or so when low and behold – but up the driveway came Nels, driving an old flatbed truck with a couple dogs in the cab! I stepped out of my truck and stood across the road looking at Nels and hoping he’d know who I was. He stared at me for a few seconds and upon recognition – got out of his truck as well. I skipped across the road and greeted Nels with a big hug, giddy of the fact that he appeared out of nowhere, seemingly summoned by my memories of him! He responded in his nonchalant style and acted as if we’d seen each other just yesterday. It had actually been years. “What’s THAT thing?” he asked me, waving his hand at my new shiny 4x4 pick-up parked across the road. His question made me ashamed to be driving this modern vehicle of convenience, not having put the time, ingenuity and nurturing into the rig like Nels always did with his vehicles. For some reason I was envious of the fact that Nels built his vehicles from the ground up, starting with some ancient framework and then cobbling them together with parts and pieces he gathered from Lord knows where.



We small talked for a few minutes and it was painful for me. What can you say to an icon of your life in a passing moment? Like so many other people I suppose, my time with Nels had been fleeting over the course of a lifetime. But each moment is an impressionable prize that’s stored in a unique place in my heart and mind. I gave Nels a hug to say goodbye; his frame was small and wirey, but still strong and vibrant. As I headed up the canyon road I felt my throat choke tight and my eyes welled up. I remember thanking God out loud over and over again…for orchestrating this privileged rendezvous with a secret hero of mine.



Nels’ life is worthy of a novel, though penning the work would require volumes and chapters that still couldn’t capture everything he’d done and seen or all the places he’d been. But mostly, the work could never capture all the lives he touched in such a profound way, just as he has mine, or the deep pain and joy that Nels experienced in his own life. Even these thoughts put to paper seem futile in expressing what Nels meant to me.



The news of Nels’ death caught me off guard, though I knew he’d been struggling this past year or so. But my reflections of Nels can only bring a smile to my face and heart as I replay the countless incidents and events that we shared together. Like most people that knew him, I wish I could go back and re-live the few moments I had with Nels; I’d throttle them down to slow motion so I could relish each one more appropriately. Sometimes the speed of life can be downright criminal.



Most of all, I feel honored and fortunate to know Nels Hitchcock. And his death doesn’t change his persona or affect on me in the least - as he has and is and always will be, quite simply…an Alaskan Legend. My heart is with all of you – his family and friends, as you reflect on the life of Nels Hitchcock. Continue to enjoy him.



Chino

aka, Mark L. Smith

Please note: Nels' Celebration of Life will be at 3pm Saturday, April 3rd at Sheep Mountain Lodge located at mile 113.5 of the Glenn Highway.

And to Nels: Even though you are changed from your past form and shape, I'm glad your particles are still floating among us. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly... (if one cares to imagine you less orderly!) Love you always.

Lots of love to you Jim. I am so sorry. Love, Chena (please tell me the story of the Sprucewood cabin sometime....).

I am sending condolences from myself Jane Womack Seufert and Nancy Womack Fox. Nels was our cousin and we have good memories of him from our childhoods.

How very sad, we have lost a family member. My deepest sympathy to all of us, but especially those closest to him. I can think of nothing better than to lend support to reason and understanding, a wonderful tribute to Nels.

Jim and Beatrice and the rest of Nels' family,
I am sorry for your great loss. I only
met Nels a few times and based on the other postings, I am sorry I never got to know him. We obviously need more people like him.
Warm regards,
Cousin Tom Hitchcock

I certainly do remember Nels, and his mother Kay. First, in Fairbanks when Nels was with my brothers and me at Lathrop and his mother was with the UAF faculty with our father. He was very shy, sitting on the school bus with his head down, but as soon as you engaged him, he was full of stories of life on Caribou Cr., and mischievous ideas of what we could do to stir things up in Fairbanks. (Didn't take much in those days!) There was some life there! Several years later we were linked up again during my brief time in Bellingham, WA, when Kay was teaching there, Nels was a student, and I was a ski bum, just pretending to be a student. Nels picked me up one day to take me over to their home for supper and confided to me he had a 'surprise' for his Mom in the back of the car. A burlap sack full of snakes he had caught!! Hmmmm. Having grown up in Alaska, I was still a bit 'unsure' about snakes, but of course I had to be 'kool' and 'brave', and just calmly asked him what he thought his Mom would think. 'She'll love it' he assured me. We arrived and Nels, with no warning to his Mom, poured open the sack in the kitchen. Snakes fell out and started wandering in all directions across the floor, probably looking for safe cover! Kay was surprised, then charmed, as we all watched those poor snakes try to make sense of their new environment! Those confused, but polite, snakes explored the kitchen, then some wandered on into the living room, and finally Kay said, calmly, '..well, they would probably be happier outside, maybe we should let them go...' (or something to that effect. My mother would have KILLED me by then...) So we opened the door, and tried to shuu them out. Nels caught a few stragglers and put them back in the sack. I tried to stay 'kool'. But my only thought was... Wow, this is one very, very special family!

I did not stay in touch with Nels or Kay after Bellingham and never made the attempt to reconnect after I moved back to Alaska. I did think of him whenever driving thru his home area on the Glenn now and then, and heard from someone that he was still living there. So I missed out on seeing how that special spirit and energy he had, had changed.... or not! I am sure those closest to him will miss him a lot. He was a force.

Carolyn Parker, Fairbanks

It is with great sadness that we have lost Nels, And My wife and I will never forget the moments we shared with him when he would stop by our General Store. He always had a smile and words of wisdom, and always had something to share. He lived a peaceful life in such a tranquil place by Caribou Creek,and to know Nels he is still living in that place and in our hearts. He now is at peace, you will be missed my friend.
Sam and Bonnie
Chickaloon

Never thought we would read about Nels passing. What a great guy. He would always believe the best in others. He had been raised in the Quaker lifestyle as I recall and was truly a man of his word. I remember he once rescued a hiker who had fallen from a cliff near the Glen Hwy. saving that man's life. He was so generous to others on an everyday basis, it was impossible for him to be any other way. We lost touch after moving stateside but he was never forgotten. The community around Sheep Mountain is missing someone very special and our heart goes out to you all.
The Strong's

Please accept my sincere condolences on Nels' passing. Having recently lost my mother, I can empathize with your loss. I recognized Nels' name because he is mentioned in a book I had published for my mother just 3 months before her passing. She wrote it 40 years ago and it includes the homesteading story of Nels' parents, Ben and Kay. I'd like to send you a complimentary copy so Nels' children can know a little bit of his childhood story. Please send an address to [email protected] and I'll drop one in mail.

Nels,
Aloha Nui Loa, David

I have fond memories of Nels making his daily visit to the Long Rifle Lodge for a cookie and a coke. He'll be missed for sure. RIP Nels.

Nels,
Aloha Nui Loa, David