Nerland, Andrew.

Andrew Nerland (1870-1956), born in Norway, emigrated to the United States in 1885. He established a paint and wallpaper contracting business in Dawson, Yukon Territory, in 1898 and in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1904, with branches opening later in Nenana, Iditarod, and Anchorage, Alaska. He gradually shifted to the furniture business. He held public office in Fairbanks (city councilman 1914, mayor 1915) and served in the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives (1917-19, 1921-23, 1931-39), the Territorial Senate (1945-51, Senate president in 1947), and on the Alaska Statehood Committee (1949-56). He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines from 1929 to 1935, when the college became the University of Alaska. He subsequently served on the university's board of regents (1935-56).