Louise Kellogg was a regent for the University of Alaska in 1955 and a member of the Pacific University Board of Trustees for 20 years. She died in 2001.

A Pioneering Visionary

The rich farming history of the Matanuska Valley lost a pioneering giant July 24 when Spring Creek Farm founder Louise Kellogg died in Palmer. She was 97.

Her life in Alaska was one of tireless energy and service. A World War II veteran and Vassar College graduate, she arrived in Alaska in 1947. After spending a year living in a tent, she created the Spring Creek Farm just north of Palmer in 1949 and built a dairy operation that became one of Alaska's top milk producers. As neighboring farmers moved on, she bought their land, eventually expanding the farm to roughly 3 / square miles. Although she retired from active farming in 1990, much of her land is still worked as a hay farm. She placed 700 acres in a trust to Alaska Pacific University to be used for educational purposes, requiring that much of the land remain in its natural state.

Besides being a leader in the Valley's dairy industry, she was instrumental in shaping the young Matanuska-Susitna Borough and served as the only woman on the first Assembly. Her passion for politics never waned. A lifelong Republican, in the early 1970s she ran for a seat in the state Legislature but never campaigned against an incumbent Democrat. Using a simple poster with only her name and photograph, she earned 40 percent of the vote and almost won the election.

She devoted much of her energy to another cause that year. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was struggling, and Louise did what she could to help its founder, Joe Redington.

"The complexity of her involvement is what stands out to me," longtime friend Katie Hurley told the Frontiersman newspaper.

"She was a dairy woman, and she was also active in politics and education... She touched the lives of every person she met."