Alaska sportfishing advocate and political insider Bob Penney dies at 90

Longtime Alaskan Bob Penney, a sportfishing activist and actual property developer who had shut ties with a number of the state’s most distinguished politicians, died Tuesday on the age of 90.

Penney owned Penco Properties, a actual property brokerage firm in Anchorage, however his lifelong ardour was defending the Kenai River to make sure it will host salmon for future generations, family and friends stated.

“Few folks notice this, in case you don’t defend the habitat, in case you don’t have a spot for the fish to stay, there’s no fish,” Penney stated in a video in regards to the river and Penney’s efforts, supplied by the household Tuesday.

Penney was additionally a prime Republican donor to main Alaska politicians he known as buddies — together with the late GOP Sen. Ted Stevens and, in more moderen years, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski — and typically obtained entangled of their controversies.

Additionally, his efforts to guard the Kenai kings usually put him at odds with industrial fishing pursuits, together with a decade in the past when Penney led a failed effort to ban setnet fishing in Prepare dinner Inlet.

“Bob was a titan,” the Penney household stated in a ready assertion Tuesday. “Every little thing he did was for the betterment of his household and the state of Alaska.”

His son, Henry Penney, stated in an interview Wednesday that his father handed away in Indian Wells, California. Penney lived there together with his spouse, Jeannie, in winter, after they weren’t at their summer season residence alongside the river in Soldotna, Henry Penney stated.

Penney within the Eighties based the Kenai River Sportfishing Affiliation, which hosted a sportfishing basic that raised cash for fish habitat and drew members of Congress, company executives and different VIPs to Alaska every summer season.

Henry and others stated Penney’s legacy is outlined by his efforts to guard the river’s habitat, together with academic outreach and constructing grid boardwalks that forestall fishermen from trampling on grass beds vital to salmon survival.

“At this time Alaska misplaced a robust civic chief, the Kenai River misplaced a fierce protector, and my household and I misplaced an expensive pal as Bob Penney handed after 90 years of a life nicely lived,” Murkowski stated in a social media post Tuesday.

Murkowski stated Penney helped create the Useful resource Growth Council, an trade advocacy group, and the Mayor’s Charity Ball.

Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan additionally posted a remembrance of Penney on social media on Tuesday, saying, “Penney introduced power, ardour and willpower to all the pieces he did.”

On Wednesday Rep. Craig Johnson, an Anchorage Republican, requested for a second of silence for Penney on the Home flooring.

“I’ve by no means had a correspondence with him when he didn’t say — he closed it with ‘keep in mind the fish,’ ” Johnson stated. “That’s what he cared about. He cared somewhat extra about sports activities fishing than industrial, however that’s to be stated.”

“So we misplaced what I imagine was an ideal Alaskan and a superb pal,” Johnson stated.

Penney was no stranger to controversy. In 2007, he offered Kenai riverfront land subsequent door to his personal property to Murkowski, resulting in accusations that she obtained a sweetheart deal at a decreased value from a household pal. Murkowski denied wrongdoing and offered the land again to Penney.

That very same 12 months, Penney appeared earlier than a federal grand jury in a corruption case involving Sen. Ted Stevens. Fees that Stevens took extreme items from supporters and didn’t report them as required by federal legislation concerned some items that had been supplied by Penney, like a stained glass window. Stevens was discovered responsible however the corruption expenses had been later thrown out attributable to prosecutorial misconduct within the case.

Lately, Penney was a main contributor to the profitable bids by Gov. Mike Dunleavy for 2 straight phrases, with Penney offering a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} in contributions.

Penney was born in Oregon shortly after the beginning of the Nice Despair, his household stated. He moved to Alaska in 1951 to handle a lumberyard in Anchorage and later offered trailers for a personal firm.

By the top of that decade, he’d launched his personal enterprise. Penney Trailer Gross sales in 1959 offered used cellular houses, and later RVs and distant development camps amid a time of development in Alaska, buoyed by the oil trade. Penney helped develop a tract of land east of downtown Anchorage that features the Northway Mall.

“Capitalizing on alternatives in the actual property market, Mr. Penney expanded to actual property investments and growth via varied partnerships and joint ventures,” the assertion from his household stated.

His growth portfolio included residential initiatives, cellular residence parks, industrial and retail properties in a number of western states and Mexico, his household stated.

Penney is survived by his spouse, 4 grown youngsters, 10 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren, his household stated.

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