Hess, Luther C.

Luther Constantine Hess (1865-1954), born on a farm near Milton, Illinois, joined the Klondike stampede to Dawson via the Dyea trail in 1898. He married Harriet Belle Trimmer in Dawson, Yukon, in 1911. A lawyer by training, he was licensed to practice law in Alaska in 1901. He was assistant district attorney in Fairbanks, Alaska (1902-1905), organizer, employee, and director of the First National Bank of Fairbanks (1905-1950s), and a member of the board of directors of the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation (1937-1942). He was also heavily involved in Alaskan politics, serving in the Territorial House of Representatives (1917-1919) and the Territorial Senate (1919-1923, 1929-1937).

Harriet Belle Hess [1881-1951], born Harriet Trimmer in Winfield, Iowa, earned a bachelor's degree and teaching certificate from the University of Minnesota in 1902. That same year she came to Alaska, serving as assistant high school principal in Juneau (1902-1907) and high school principal in Fairbanks (1907-1910). She married Luther C. Hess at Dawson, Yukon, in 1911. Harriet was a member of the University of Alaska Board of Regents from 1917 until her death in 1951. A women's dormitory on the university campus in Fairbanks was named for her in 1939.