Lontz, Vernon E.

Vernon E. Lontz (1915-1997) was born in Oklahoma, but grew up in Seattle. He first went north in 1934 on the M.S. Boxer and the next year on the M.S. North Star, both ships belonging to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He worked in the gallery first as "pot-walloper" and later as baker. He left the sea to marry Charline Elois Nusbaum and joined Arctic Circle Exploration, Inc., (A.C.E.), first as a cook and then accountant at the A.C.E. headquarters at Candle. From 1942 until 1946 Lontz toured the South Pacific with the Marine Corps. He turned down, to his later regret, a captaincy offered by Governor Gruening to help organize the Alaska Territorial Guard. After being honorably discharged from the Marines, he returned to the A.C.E. at Candle as the office manager, treasurer of Arctic Trading & Transport, Inc. (a subsidiary of A.C.E.), and master of two ocean-going barges. Too much time had gone by during the war with little to no organized management of the diversified company. Financial difficulties resulted and the company's assets were divided among its creditors. Vernon E. Lontz returned "Outside" where he founded "Nati's Mexican Restaurants" in January of 1960.