HUMAN

Name: Bob Sept

Residence: Chugiak, Alaska

Age: 74

Occupation: I’m a veterinarian, still practicing in a small animal practice.

Years involved with Iditarod: I first was involved at Iditarod in 1979, and for the next 20 years I was involved.

Past Iditarod Roles: Race president with the Board and head veterinarian, and then just a veterinary volunteer. So it’s about 20 years of activity, always with the veterinary group and helping with the rules as president of the board of directors for three years, ’81 through ’84. And a huge challenge, a lot of fun, met a lot of people all over the state.

Current Location: Settler’s Bay Lodge in Wasilla, Alaska
Date of Photo: March 1, 2022

Temperature: 68 F Indoors

What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?

I first got involved with the Iditarod, I came up here in 1978 and I saw on a board, a poster board, an Iditarod volunteer certificate. And I looked at that and I couldn’t even figure out what Iditarod was, didn’t know how to pronounce it, asked a friend of mine. And so I talked with several veterinarians and the next year it was my first year with the race. Then in ’79, went out to Rohn River as a veterinarian. Yeah, and that’s when it all started. Then soon after that met Joe Reddington, and he encouraged me to become a member of the board of directors, which I did. All my experiences with the Iditarod, the board of directors was the most challenging. Traveled all over the state.

What was one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences?

One of my most memorable experiences was in Rohn River. And this would’ve been about 1994, right in there. It was about midnight. Rick Swinson came in and one of his dogs broke off from the gangline and got his neck wrapped around a tree and went down, was unconscious. We were about 40 yards from the trail. We ran out and grabbed him, got him in that little cabin. He wasn’t breathing. We took a garden hose that was hung up on the wall in this cabin. We had Coleman lanterns to work with, and we got that garden hose down into the dog’s trachea and we started breathing for him. He suffered a concussion of the cervical spine, and we had bleeding, which was causing him to be unable to breathe. We got him on IV fluids, we nursed him all that night and the next morning Iditarod Air Force came in. We flew him back to Anchorage and he made a recovery.

What does the 50th running of the Iditarod mean to you?

Never dreamed I’d be around for the 50th running of the race. Every year just came and it was a landmark just to see another race, new faces, meeting new people.

What do you know for sure?:

What do I know for sure in life? The one thing I know is we’re like a bicycle, you got to keep moving or you tip over, and I certainly still enjoy veterinary medicine and always feel good when I get around Iditarod people.