Alaska’s Constitution: A Citizen’s Guide: Katie Hurley

Posted At : May 15, 2008 1:00 AM
Related Categories: Alaska,History

Excerpted from Alaska's Constitution: A Citizen's Guide by Dr. Gordon S. Harrison, published by Alaska Legislative Affairs Agency, 2003.

Read by Katie Hurley, Chief Clerk to Alaska's Constitutional Convention. Katherine Torkelsen Alexander Hurley was born in Juneau to Norwegian immigrants on Seward's Day. She has been a public servant in the territory and state since December 1940 and is the proud mother of three children and four grandchildren. Despite her 86 years, she remains a vigorous activist.

In Alaska's Constitution: A Citizen's Guide, Dr. Gordon S. Harrison writes:

"The Alaska Constitution was written during the winter of 1955-1956 at a convention that was held in Fairbanks on the campus of the University of Alaska. The academic setting was chosen to inspire reflective deliberation and to escape the "smoke-filled rooms" of Juneau. Statehood was still three years away, and at the time the prospects were not bright for quick congressional action. Writing a constitution at that time, rather than after Alaska was admitted to the Union, was a [strategy] in the battle for statehood: stalwarts hoped that a good constitution written and acclaimed by the people of the territory would help rally skeptics to their cause and promote statehood in Washington, D.C."

In fact, Hawaii -- the 50th state -- had created their constitution before Alaska.

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