HUMAN

Name: Walt Phillips

Residence: Anchorage, Alaska

Age: 81

Occupation: I’m retired

Years involved with Iditarod: I worked with the Iditarod from 1974 off and on till just a few years ago.

Past Iditarod Roles: I served for a while as treasurer of the board from, I believe, it was about 1977 till ’79.

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 in the Iditarod in 1974, although my wife and I had followed closely the 1973 race, but we were in Houston, Texas working on the design for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline at the time. When we returned in 74, Gail immediately went to work as a volunteer, and within a couple of months, she had talked me into joining her, and I was spending time down at… selling trinkets and working in the radio room. She became secretary of the board and I was elected to be treasurer. And at that point for about two, almost three years, the address of record for the Iditarod was our home in Spenard. 

What was one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences?

Probably one of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was the year that I was asked to be the starting line judge in Anchorage. I worked with Joel Kottke as race Marshall, and then in Nome. At the Nome end it was Howard Farley. So the three of us were the crew that year.

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

Knowing this is the 50th Iditarod race, it makes me feel good to know that we made it this far. When we first started out, all of us were volunteers, we had no budget and it was a little bit iffy at times whether we would make it from one year to the next. But as people began to learn about the Iditarod, both locally and nationally, and even internationally, it became something that now we just expect to happen every year.

What do you know for sure?:

You ask what I know for sure in life. I think that the Iditarod has shown us that if enough people put their mind to something, almost anything is possible.