The Alaska Contractor: Special 60th Anniversary Issue

fi t and did not run for reelection.”
The farewell speech
Springer gave on the fl oor
of the House in Juneau in
the spring of 1988 is considered
by many as a classic, if
somewhat blunt chastisement
of Alaska’s Legislature
and its annual performances
in Juneau. Let it suffi ce to
say that the speech remains
unequaled.
A decade with AGC
As executive director of
AGC, Springer helped guide
the organization through
many changes. “We changed
from a social club to a functional
organization,” he said.
“In the beginning we
had over 60 directors and that basically
meant that anybody who paid
sizeable dues became a director. We’ve
completely reorganized and we put
together a structural committee approach
with an executive committee
consisting of seven directors who have
the authority from the full board.
“The functions changed,” he continued.
“The legislative committee
now is a very important committee
that’s where, through a feedback process,
the whole industry has input into
what the priorities should be. We get
involved in elections.”
AGC also became very aggressive
in teaming up with Alaska’s educational
system beginning in the Springer
era. Now instead of competing with
each other for blocks of money, all go
in together with a plan that involves
the players at all levels to put together
a program for training the people the
construction industry will need in the
years ahead.
Industry changes
When he compares construction
today to the way it used to be, Springer
does not particularly like what he sees,
and, as usual, he’s not afraid to say so.
“It’s been really a lot of fun,” he
said, “but I really miss the old days.
When I look back at what are the big
differences between then and now
and why it was more gratifying … I felt
I was doing something and I don’t feel
that way anymore.
Red-E-Steel crew prepares to place the last piece of arch, suspended from the highline, at the Hurricane Gulch
Bridge on the Parks Highway in 1971.
“There are a lot of real discernable
and easy to identify changes. I think
probably the biggest changes that affected
the construction industry and
development fi rst were all the vast
changes in the assumption of power in
the federal government. In the duration
of 10 years there were 56 acts passed—
large-scale regulations implemented
that had incredibly pronounced effects.
“I’m not saying that all of them
were bad. I’m just saying that all had a
couple of things in common. They effected
pronounced changes and cost.
Nearly all of them were associated
with great costs.
60th Anniversary Issue 1948–2008 The Alaska conTrAcTor 47
PH O TO: CO U R T E SY O F HE N RY SP R I N G E R