DONORS:
Ron and Kristine Clarke, Travis Booms, Thomas Doolittle, Dale Hall,
Dave Loring, Bob Collins, Tim and Colleen Sell, Rich Holmstrom,
Kelly Benedict, Jim Robinson
Vern Seifert, 94, passed away in Anchorage, Alaska on
Saturday, March 23, 2019. Born to German immigrants,
Richard and Martha Seifert in New York City on February
15, 1925, Vern was fascinated by everything that flew.
At age 4, he aspired to be a zeppelin captain. Raised in
the Bronx, he caught ducks along the East River with
Peregrine Falcons he caught from the wild and trained.
After WWII Navy service, he left NYC for Colorado. He
moved to Alaska in 1959. He worked for Jonas Brothers
Taxidermists and was a bush pilot and guide. Traveling
often to Point Hope, he developed a mutual affinity for
the people there, who embraced him as a kindred spirit.
Elders invited him on a whale hunt, and they strongly
influenced his thinking and his art for the rest of his life.
Vern was a painter, sculptor and woodcarver whose totem poles
stand around Anchorage – at the Arctic Roadrunner, the Coast
International Inn, and at 4th Avenue and G Street. His life-sized
Goshawk chasing a mallard took first
honors at his first ever woodcarving
competition. Vern’s enormous fiberglass
rhinoceros beetle continues to delight
visitors to the May Natural History
Museum in Colorado Springs. He cast an
entire Beluga Whale in plaster of Paris and
molded life-sized replicas which remain
in museums and private collections.
Vern’s organic understanding of wildlife
led to some of the first-ever captive
breeding of large falcons in captivity.
He understood people too; dead-on accuracy and unflinching
honesty delighted and infuriated his friends. Vern attracted
children whom he lovingly quizzed, amused, instructed and
occasionally terrified. Vern’s lifelong close friend Debbie dubbed
him “Birdman” and neighborhood children called him “Crazy
Wolf.” The nicknames stuck and were used affectionately for years.
Vern looked to nature for inspiration for his unconventional
aircraft designs. He flew a Piper J-3 modified to mimic a gyrfalcon
complete with pivoting wingtips. In the early 1960s, he improved
performance of his Taylorcraft L-2 by adding “knuckles” - like
tubercles on humpback whale flippers – to the leading edge
of the wings. His advances were recognized decades later by
academics and engineers. Vern flew the L-2 as recently as age 93!
Insatiably curious, Vern fascinated, inspired, and sometimes
frustrated all who entered his orbit. Fiercely independent, he
was unaffected by accolades or criticism. Vern rode his bike
or walked everyday into his 90s. He lived independently until
two weeks before his death in a house he built with materials
salvaged from the 1964 earthquake.
Vern was preceded in death by his parents
and younger brother. He is survived by his
other brother in New York, two nieces, five
nephews, and three grandnieces, cousins in
Germany, his extended “Alaska family”, and
many friends, colleagues and admirers.
On the phone with an old friend on what would
be his last birthday, Vern said “We had a good ride
haven’t we? What a wonderful planet we were put
on.” The planet will not see another like him.
Vern Seifert
(February 15, 1925 – March 23, 2019)
IN LOVING MEMORY
Vern’s experimental
aircraft 1964
Vern with GHO
and RT,1943
Vern and passage As-
sateague peregrine, 1947