Fundraising is underway for a University of Alaska Southeast scholarship in the memory of two statehood pioneers. Burke Riley and Dick Freer, of Yakima, Washington, were cousins and lifelong friends who bought a one-way ticket to Alaska in 1938 in search of work. They landed in Fairbanks and, like many Alaska pioneers, both had a long history of public service in the last frontier.
Rosemarie Alexander, KTOO – Juneau