Elaine Hill Sunde
When I finished graduate studies I found myself a single parent; I had three young children and first class credentials in 18th century British literature (think Lawrence Sterne) and medieval philosophy (think Augustine). What I didn’t have was a job.
To my rescue, the United States Forest Service found my credentials a “close enough” match to become a Public Information Officer writing environmental studies and organizing public information groups (quickly renamed Citizen Information Groups to avoid any reference to PIGs). The only hitch was that my job was located where trees (forests) grow. So off to Alaska we went.
This was during the Carter years, so we were kept busy studying and then designating great swaths of Alaska land as permanent wilderness areas. This Kansas girl found herself bouncing around in float planes, squelching through muskegs, and photographing whales while trying, urgently, to avoid the immense brown bears.
After eight years, the FS wanted me to move to Atlanta. With a newly acquired husband and children firmly rooted, I chose to pick up my job title and move to the Alaska State Legislature. Here we had Legislative Information Offices (LIGs) to help citizens in remote villages communicate with legislators in the equally remote roadless and isolated state capital of Juneau. My challenges here tended less toward wildlife and more toward arrogant senators and irate members of Tlingit, Haida, Aleut, and Athabascan clans.
Again, some eight years later, I finally found myself in a college classroom teaching English. That dream-come-true lasted only two years before I was plucked upstairs to be the director of the small campus in Sitka. I must say, the last job was the best. While technically in the University of Alaska system, this brave little campus was a community college at heart. We became an early and national leader delivering distance education to remote students and in meeting immediate community and regional needs such as environmental programs geared to village sanitation systems.
When I retired, I had logged some 25 years doing everything except teaching medieval philosophy. Wonderful years in a wonderful place.
Elaine, your life sounds so engaging, and I imagine the impact that literature and philosophy had on your career is a powerful springboard to such a creative path. Bears and pontoon planes alone make me shrink into relative safety of living a mundane life in urban environments. I am really curious about how people choose unconventional careers in far away places, and hope you will share more experience with us.
Dear Elaine,
Boy Howdy! You have led, and are still leading a most interesting and exciting life. I’m proud to have gone to school with you. You and I went to Sunnyside Elementary School together and on occasion I walked you home from school (500 hundred block on South Rutan) and may have even carried your books. God knows I didn’t have any to carry. We spent some time in your backyard playing in your fishpond, catching snails and other critters. You were the prettiest girl in school, and I believe the smartest too. Happy New Year!