Name: James P. Doogan
City: Fairbanks
District: 20
Occupation: Businessman
Born: November 3, 1914 - Douglas, Alaska
Death: April 4, 1997 - Fairbanks, Alaska
Burial Location: Northern Lights Cemetery - Fairbanks, Alaska
Alaska Resident: Lifelong
Convention Posts:
- Member, Committee on Preamble and Bill of Rights
- Member, Committee on Local Government
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Quote from the Constitutional Convention:
"Mr. President, I was born and raised in the Territory. I have been outside
for a couple of very, very short periods, and I don't think I have an inferiority
complex. If I do, I don't admit it. I have tried to fight qualifying language
like this proposed section proposes. I maintain that any executive who has been
put in the job of governor, first by a major political party and then elected
by the people, if he can stand the gaff of going outside to get somebody he
thinks he needs, let him do it. I think that we in Alaska, as has been said,
sometimes try to build too much of a wall around ourselves. We are trying to
adopt a constitution. We put qualifying language in like this, we complain to
the Congress of the United States that they won't recognize us as citizens of
the United States, and then we turn around and say in our constitution, after
they do recognize us, that we are not going to recognize them until they live
with us for a while."
-Delegate James P. Doogan, Day 55 of the Constitutional Convention, addressing
the proposed residency requirements for state hiring
Education: Douglas High School, University of Alaska, Anchorage
Community College
Public Offices and Organizations:
- Fairbanks City Council
- Director, State Alcoholic Beverages Control Board (1971)
- Board of Directors, University of Alaska Alumni Association
Honors Received:
- 1997 Meritorious Service Award - University of Alaska Fairbanks (This award was intended to be an Honorary Doctorate, but Doogan passed away before the degree could be presented, and university regulations prohibit posthumous honorary degrees)
Further Information:
From the News Archive:
Obituary: James Patrick Doogan
Fairbanks businessman and politician James Patrick Doogan Sr., 82, died Friday evening at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.
The lifelong Alaskan was born in Douglas, Alaska on Nov. 3, 1914.
Doogan established Pioneer Express, a local delivery company, in 1944 and was a member of the Fairbanks Volunteer Fire Department until the formation of the Fairbanks Fire Department.
Doogan served on the Fairbanks City Council from 1947-1950 and from 1956-1959. Doogan was elected as a delegate to the Alaska Constitutional Convention in 1955 and served on the Bill of Rights and local government committees.
In 1962 he sold Pioneer Express and became director of urban renewal for the Alaska State Housing Authority. Doogan was to be honored at the 1997 UAF Commencement with an honorary degree for a lifetime of public service.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – April 5, 1997
