The public face of Alaska Electric Light and Power during the Snettisham avalanche crisis has died.
Kenneth Scott Willis, 61, succumbed to cancer on Thursday in Seattle, his family reported.
In April 2008, avalanches severed AEL&P’s power transmission lines from the Snettisham hydroelectric project. With months required to repair them, Juneau was forced to rely on costly backup diesel generators. Residential electricity rates climbed by 447 percent.
Juneau resident Bob King recalled how after the disaster, AEL&P had to explain what had happened to an at-times angry public.
At the time, Willis was AEL&P’s vice president for power generation and its top engineer.
“They needed a good spokesman,” King recalled. “Scott was like, ‘I’m an engineer, get someone else.’ It turned out that Scott stepped up to the plate. He became this really great spokesman.”
In the months it took for AEL&P to rebuild the Snettisham power line — this time armored against avalanches — Willis held public discussions, answered angry questions and became an ubiquitous figure.
“There were some tense moments, but he handled it really well,” King said.
“This has been very hard on the employees of AEL&P,” said company president Tim McLeod. “Scott was a key employee who was involved with nearly every aspect of the company operations. He was always helpful to other employees and was very highly respected by everyone. His expertise on hydro management is known throughout the state. Those of us who have had the good fortune to work with Scott have learned a lot from him and will miss his great sense of humor.”
Sarah Ricker, one of Willis’ three children, now lives in Atlanta. She recalled him as a “man of routine and patterns” who ensured those patterns included oddball hobbies such as unicycling, ventriliquism, juggling and yo-yo-ing.
“His hobby was collecting hobbies,” Ricker said. “He read once that in 15 minutes a day of practice, you could learn to do anything, and he really took that to heart.”
Ricker remembers how he kept a shelf of yo-yos in their home. “All my life, when he was dressed, if he had a few minutes before work or church,” he would go to the shelf and practice, she said.
Ricker remembers how her father organized his life with yellow Post-It Notes that he perpetually folded in half and tucked in a shirt pocket to remind himself of important events.
“He always got up and showered at 6:15,” she remembers. “When he got home from work, he had a set pattern.”
He’d park his truck at the entrance of their driveway, by the mailbox, and pull out his unicycle to practice on the way home.
“That was part of the way he kept himself organized was to follow these routines,” she said.
When he became AEL&P’s official spokesman, he had the chance to pass on what he had learned.
“He taught us that you should always begin your public speaking with a joke,” Ricker said, and he continued that habit during the avalanche years.
“That sense of humor was always important to him,” she said.
Willis was born Aug. 21, 1954 in Phoenix, the oldest of seven siblings. He was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a church mission in Montreal before graduating from Brigham Young University.
He married Gaye Jones in 1979 in Logan, Utah.
Willis and his family came to Juneau in 1984 after seeing a job advertised by the Alaska Power Administration. At the time, Willis was working for the U.S. Bureau of Administration in Utah.
“My dad thought it would be a great two-year adventure,” Ricker said. “He frequently told the story ending with, ‘and we’ve been here 31 years.’”
He was a frequent volunteer with local organizations and created an interactive hydropower display at the Juneau City Museum that remains one of the most popular items in the mining room, museum director Jane Lindsey said.
Willis’ legal name was Kenneth Scott, but he went by his middle name, following tradition. Willis’ father was Kenneth, and Willis’ own son is Kenneth Reed. Reed’s son is Kenneth Jackson.
