Robert Neil DeArmond (September 29, 1911 – November 26, 2010) was an American historian who specialized in the history of Alaska, especially the

Alaska Panhandle Southeast Alaska, colloquially referred to as the Alaska(n) Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia (and a small part ...

. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, DeArmond wrote several historical columns for southeast Alaska publications; these included ''Days of Yore'', ''Gastineau Bygones'', and ''News of the Gold Camp''. He lived in

Sitka, Alaska russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

, and continued to write until his death.

Early life and education

DeArmond was born in

and raised there and in Tacoma, Washington. He graduated from Stadium High School in 1930. He worked in a salmon cannery in the summer of 1930, and later received a reporting job for the ''Stroller's Weekly'' in Juneau. In 1931, he traveled by rowboat from Sitka to Tacoma;DeArmond, R. N
Bob DeArmond Biography
Alaska State Library Historical Collections, February 2003 DeArmond wrote a book about his travel, ''A Voyage in a Dory'', in 1999. He spent a year at the University of Oregon. At age 15, he contributed a design for the

flag of Alaska The state flag of Alaska displays eight gold stars, forming the Big Dipper and Polaris, on a dark blue field. The Big Dipper is an asterism (astronomy), asterism in the constellation Ursa Major which symbolizes a bear, an animal indigenous to Al ...

contest in 1927; it is housed in the Alaska State Museum.

Career

DeArmond returned to Sitka after college. There, he worked in the fishing industry for 12 years. In 1938 he helped found the city of Pelican, Alaska, where he served as a storekeeper and the

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

. The DeArmond family moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, in 1944, and Robert returned to journalism. He worked for the ''

Ketchikan Daily News The ''Ketchikan Daily News'' is the primary daily newspaper for Ketchikan, Alaska, founded in 1934. Lew Williams, Jr., who became the paper's managing editor in 1966, was well known in Alaska as an opinion columnist. Originally appearing mainly ...

'', the '' Juneau Empire'' and other publications in covering the Alaska Territorial Legislature. DeArmond was a prolific history writer for regional publications. Over 700 of his columns were put in the online Digital Bob project, sponsored by the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, beginning in 2004. DeArmond worked for territorial governor B. Frank Heintzleman in the 1950s and lived in Juneau during this time.

Family

He was married to artist Dale DeArmond née Burlison, who died on November 21, 2006. They married in 1935 and had two children, William and Jane. DeArmond died on November 26, 2010 in

Bibliography

*''The Founding of Juneau'' (1967) *(with Evangeline Atwood) ''Who's Who in Alaskan Politics'' (1977)

References

External links

The Bob DeArmond Alaska History Project
* {{DEFAULTSORT:DeArmond, Robert Neil 1911 births 2010 deaths American historians American reporters and correspondents Editors of Alaska newspapers Historians of Alaska People from Juneau, Alaska People from Ketchikan, Alaska People from Sitka, Alaska Writers from Alaska