HUMAN

Name: Bill Crawford

Residence: Anchorage, Alaska

Age: 84

Occupation: I’m retired from Chevron Corporation

Years involved with Iditarod: 18

Past Iditarod Roles: Were a sponsorship of both the Iditarod Trail Committee and Jerry Austin of St. Michael.

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?

When I was with Chevron, I had just been up in Alaska with Chevron for just a year. I came here in 1977 and 1978. Jerry Austin was in town for a commission agent meeting. And the next day was the Iditarod and I was fascinated by the Iditarod race and I was asking questions about it. And I said, well, why don’t you ask Jerry Austin here? He’s going to run it tomorrow, and he might be able to use your help as a crew for starting the race. So I went home, told the family, my wife Gay, and son Mark, and daughter Wendy, that we’re going to be handlers for Jerry Austin on the start of the Iditarod. And that’s how we got started in 1978.

What was one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences?

…Iditarod experience was in 1991 when I was in White Mountain and Rick Swenson had left White Mountain after a whole bunch of other mushers, including Susan Butcher and a bunch of other well known mushers had turned around and come back and Rick Swenson kept going. So, I was wondering how I could get out of White Mountain and get to Nome. And there was one last flight that the pilot came down and says, “I’m headed for Nome, anybody want to go?” And I said, “Yes, take me.” So I got there just in time to see Rick Swenson finish his fifth Iditarod and I was in the winner’s circle right there to welcome him at winning his fifth Iditarod. So yeah, that was the most memorable experience I think I had. There was many of them, but that was the best.

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

How does the 50th anniversary of the Iditarod make me feel? Well, first thing, it does makes me feel old. Because we’ve been up here since ’77 and I’m 84 years old now. So yeah, it’s been quite a ride. We had a lot of good years with the Iditarod. Jerry Austin, his whole team would stay at our house with all 22 dogs to stretch out on our front lawn and we would get up the next morning, and we were his crew, his handlers down on 4th Avenue to get him started. And back in those days, they actually started the race in Anchorage and they went out to Eagle River and then we had to reload them into the dog boxes and then take them to Wasilla, unload them again, and then they’d start and they’d come out the Knik Road and then they’d be off. So anyway, it’s been a good ride for 50 years.

What do you know for sure?:

What in life do you know for sure? Well, it’s been a good life. We have two children, boy and a girl. And from those two children, we have seven grandchildren and now we have five great-grandchildren with another one on the way. So we will have six great-grandchildren. So I say that, “What do you know for sure that’s good in life?” Well, I’d say that right there is family and we are lucky enough to have all these children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.