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On Jan. 3, 2009, Alaska will officially celebrate its 50th anniversary as a state.

Thousands of Alaskans across distant geographic and often different ethnic and economic regions will commemorate the half-century birthday with festivities and ceremonies recognizing the historic celebration.

Those thousands will include seven Alaskans who dusted off memories recalling their personal opportunity in government service to witness and participant in public policy decisions by their boss at the time: the chief executive officer and governor of Alaska.

Each of the seven served as the primary press secretary or communications director for Governors William A. Egan, Walter J. Hickel, Jay Hammond, Bill Sheffield, Steve Cowper, Tony Knowles and Frank H. Murkowski. (Efforts were unsuccessful to locate press staff for the half-term administration (1969-'70) of Gov. Keith Miller. Miller had been elected lieutenant governor and moved up when Hickel was named secretary of the Interior in the Nixon administration.)

None of the former press secretaries still work in the Office of the Governor. All say they were surprised and proud to be considered and appointed as the governor's news media contact.

The seven are not alone. Since statehood, at least 20 men and women have served as the chief or deputy press secretary, communications director or press staff assisting with "outreach," phone calls, newsletters and emails to keep constituents in touch with the administration.

Some communications staffers remained through one or two administrations. Others lasted a few days or weeks. Some were surprised to learn that those in charge already had firm ideas about press management. Others probably left the "Third Floor," the governor's office complex in the Capitol, humming the civil rights watchword, "Free, free at last."

JOHN GREELY

John Greely was a freelance journalist in Juneau in 1982 when Bill Sheffield faced and defeated Tom Fink in the contest for governor, and later faced impeachment during his term.

Greely was the key press aide during the efforts to impeach Sheffield. Today he dryly describes that experience as "One of many adventures we had, yes."

"We didn't want the governor's office closed to us," Greely said. "We wanted to be in on the policy issues. We needed to be able to say this is a bad idea. Sometimes the perspective you have as a trained journalist raises flags.

"From my perspective, Gov. Sheffield should be remembered for engineering the state's purchase of the Alaska Railroad as well as the successful transfer of Mt. Edgecumbe High School to the state."

Greely added, "I think oil prices bottomed out at around $9 a barrel during Sheffield's term, necessitating the first large scale budget cuts in state history."

Greely is chief editor for the Association of Alaska School Boards in Juneau.

DAVID RAMSEUR

David Ramseur joined Gov. Steve Cowper's campaign in 1986 after being fired from the Washington, D.C. office of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

"I had written a critical column about the News-Miner shutting down its D.C. bureau. Publisher C.W. Snedden didn't think much of that and directed me fired."

Ramseur said Cowper was a maverick as a legislator. "He got very little credit but he was involved in creation of the permanent fund as head of the House Finance Committee."

"It was just a great joy to be in his company, incredibly witty and funny and thoughtful," Ramseur added. "I just enjoyed hanging out with him and I also agreed with all of his politics."

"Cowper's most significant achievement was managing the state through the devastating Exxon Valdez disaster," Ramseur said. "He arrived at the scene within hours of the spill and spent the rest of his term coordinating the clean-up and helping affected Alaskans."

Cowper took office in 1986 as oil dropped to single digit prices, sending Alaska into a recessionary tailspin, forcing hundreds of Alaskans to walk away from their mortgages.

"Gov. Cowper worked to stimulate the economy through modest state capital projects and diversifying the economy," Ramseur said.

Ramseur returned to the Third Floor as a senior aide to Gov. Tony Knowles. He succeeded Jim Ayers as Knowles's chief of staff and later became a senior aide to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

BOB KING

Bob King was the governor's press secretary through two terms of Gov. Knowles (1994-02).

King spent 17 years in broadcasting - mostly about fish - at a public radio station in Dillingham.

"I knew Knowles from interviewing him in the 1990 election and in 1994. I was burning out and frankly I was looking for something different. I applied to go to college at UAF to do some graduate work," King said.

"Knowles came through town and I interviewed him. He said 'I'll see ya during the general election.' I explained that I had been accepted for the university's Masters Alaska Studies Program. But Knowles called a couple of days later and said, 'Come work for me.'"

Like the earlier Cowper administration, the Knowles team faced sharp questions from the press and public in the face of budget deficits and oil prices that dipped to as low as $9 a barrel.

"One of our biggest successes," King said, "was preserving and even growing basic state services like education, public safety, health and economic development despite pressure to slash or dismantle these.

"Passage of programs like Denali KidCare, part of the federal S-CHIP program, was a notable victory in such a fiscal environment and only occurred because we mustered public support by arguing that investments like these more than paid off in reduced expenses down the road."

King is CEO of King Salmon Associates, a public interest consulting firm in Juneau, with clients including Turning the Tides, a nonprofit working to clean up Southeast Alaska beaches.

For Part II of this series, read next Friday's Neighbors.

• Joe Holbert served as press secretary in the first administration of Gov. Hickel; as Interior Secretary Hickel's press secretary at the U.S. Department of the Interior and as communications director for Gov. Murkowski. He is an honorary lifetime member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and a member of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.