The Alaska Contractor: Special 60th Anniversary Issue

PH O TO: LA R RY MO O R E & ASSOCIATES
By Ron Dalby
Rich Richmond, essentially working for the same company with a series
of different owners over the years, made a career out of matching bonding
companies with contractors in Alaska. “I was the middleman,”
he said.
At fi rst he worked from Seattle. But in 1974 he was
getting tired of always being on an airplane and spending
his days fl ying back and forth to Alaska. He went
home and told his wife and three daughters they were
moving to Alaska.
His wife, Sandy, was less than
thrilled with the idea. Born and raised
in Washington, she was quite happy
in Seattle, thank you. Rich prevailed,
though, when he made her understand
that this is how he expected to earn
their livelihood.
It didn’t take long for the reality of
living in Alaska in those days to confuse
the issue even more, like the day
his wife went to the grocery store for
some mozzarella cheese and came
home fuming because the store was
out and would be until the next ship
arrived in a week to 10 days.
Then there were the constant
power outages. “The ships coming into the harbor, said
Richmond, “would drag their anchors and cut the cable
running under the Inlet from the power plant.” Later
a power line built around the Inlet would solve that
problem, but in the meantime Richmond bought an
emergency generator for his home
“I fi nally placated her by buying a condominium in
Maui,” Richmond said. “I wish I hadn’t done that, but
nonetheless we still have it. I haven’t seen it in 17 years,
but she spends a nice piece of every winter over there,
even since we’ve moved back to Washington.”
Bidding jobs
The communications problems three decades ago
made for extra excitement in the life of contractors,
according to Richmond. All the bids were opened in
Juneau, and to make certain all materials arrived, contractors
would hand-carry bids to the state capital …
assuming the weather would condescend to let their
Rich Richmond
‘The people I
did business with are
really wonderful people’
“The AGC
fought tooth
and nail and
fi nally got bid
openings in
Anchorage.
That worked
out a lot better.”
– Rich Richmond
planes land. Bad weather cost a lot of contractors jobs
over the years.
“That’s all past history, now,” Richmond said. “The
AGC fought tooth and nail and fi nally got bid openings
in Anchorage. That worked out a lot better.”
Younger contractors these days who had no experience
in Alaska back then sometimes
don’t quite understand the problems
involved. “Earlier [the day of his interview]
we had been talking about using
a telex,” Richmond said, “when a certain
party mentioned, ‘Well, why didn’t they
just send a fax?’ There weren’t any faxes
and there were no computers and the
ticker-tape telex we had sitting in our
offi ce was our communications link
when it wasn’t down.”
Time zone differences were another
problem. In 1974, Anchorage was two
hours earlier than Seattle, fi ve hours
earlier than the East Coast where many
of the bonding companies were, and Juneau
operated on Seattle time. “A lot of
mornings I was up at four or fi ve in the morning trying
to clear bonds for contractors who decided they needed
one that day.”
People make the difference
“First of all,” Richmond said, “the people I did business
with are really wonderful people. They’re a great
bunch. There were very few accountants up here at the
time and there were a couple of very good bankers.
“There was Bill Murray who worked for Dan Cuddy
[First National Bank Alaska]. These people—and Elmer
Rasmuson [National Bank of Alaska] of course—were
the two primary bankers along with Al Swalling.” Swalling
was both chairman of the board of Matanuska Bank
and a contractor.
“These people worked on trust. They didn’t bank fi nancial
statements as such, they banked people. If you could get
through an interview with Dan Cuddy or Elmer Rasmuson,
you had a loan. If you couldn’t get through it, forget it.
42 The Alaska conTrAcTor 60th Anniversary Issue 1948–2008