Walking around Unalakleet on a sunny summer’s day in August, it feels as if the town has temporarily shut down. The remote village, nestled on the Norton Sound just south of the Seward Peninsula, boasts a population of just under 700 and on this day you’d have a hard time finding anyone that didn’t already know what they were doing for lunch. That’s a good thing, since at least one of the few eateries in town has closed it doors for the hour.
Workers from the Igloo, a local diner, along with seemingly everyone else in town have gathered at the Old Covenant High School gym for lunch. But they’re not there for the Alaskan rockfish freshly prepared by Anchorage-based chef Rob Kinneen.
The village of Unalakleet has gathered to honor Wilfred Ryan Jr., or “Boyuck” as his he’s known to his friends and family. The Institute of the North, an Alaska-based research and outreach organization, is presenting Boyuck with the Robert O. Anderson Sustainable Arctic Award.
In his acceptance speech to the packed gym, Boyuck thanked everyone for showing up, acknowledging that many in the audience could be out doing other things in the middle of August. “Betty you could be berry picking, Ike could be fishing,” Boyuck pointed out, adding “it really warms my heart to… realize that you’re here to support me.”
Boyuck was raised in Unalakleet by his parents Wilfred Ryan Sr. and Eva Ryan. During WWII, his father served as a pilot in the Alaska Territorial Guard and after the war worked for Alaska Airlines. To avoid being transferred to Anchorage, Ryan founded his own airline, Unalakleet Air Taxi.
Boyuck described things as “pretty tight and tough” during the company’s early years. Along with raising nine children, his mom worked as a teacher for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, sacrificing her paycheck to fund her husband’s dream to own his own airline. Boyuck recalled a memory from those early days.
“So one day when we’re having dinner, we had sura, tuukaiyuk, and all the greens on the table that mom spent picking all summer,” Boyuck explained, “and my brother says, in his squeaky little voice, “Hey mom are we all out of money, is that why we’re eating grass?””
Boyuck took over the family business when his father died of cancer in 1977. Along with renaming the company Ryan Air, he expanded it from a small, three-plane two-pilot operation to the largest commuter carrier in Alaska. Ryan Air is now one of the state’s key Bush freight carriers, operating fourteen aircraft out of seven hubs and employing over ninety people.
In his opening remarks, Nils Andreassen, Executive Director of the Institute of the North explained that Boyuck has been involved with the Insistute for a decade at least. He’s hosted workshops in Russia and conferences in Alaska, serving as a strong proponent of East-West collaboration.
As Andreassen alluded to, Boyuck’s accomplishments are far-reaching. In an effort to update safety measures and utilize emerging technologies, he successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress, and former Senator Ted Stevens in particular, to fund Next Generation Air Transportation System. Now the worldwide standard, NextGen transformed air traffic control from a ground-based to a satellite-based operation.
Boyuck’s son Lee Ryan, Vice President of Ryan Air, explained his excitement and what it means to have his father receive this award.
“You look at the names of who this award has been given to and they’re people who have worked their whole lives to create a better Arctic,” Lee said. “He’s put his whole life into giving people in the Bush a better lifestyle and really when you think of a sustainable Arctic, he’s provided, with his team and his friends, a sustainable world in aviation, which is pretty impressive.”
Despite the individual recognition, in their speeches both Boyuck and his son continued to put the spotlight back onto the Unalakleet community. They called out countless individuals by name, giving a sense that the success of Ryan Air would not be possible without many in the audience.
Closing the event, the audience returned the favor by honoring, Boyuck, of one of Old Covenant High’s distinguished alumni, with a heartwarming and impressively harmonious rendition their alma mater song.
