Flakne, Joseph T., 1900-1999

Joseph T. Flakne (1900-1999) was known as a conservationalist, environmentalist, and activist for women's rights. Born and raised in Minnesota, he arrived in Alaska in 1929. There he attended the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines (now University of Alaska Fairbanks). Majoring in business administration and agriculture, he graduated in 1934. In his long career of public service he was district agricultural agent and superintendant of the college's farm (1934-1937), Alaska director of the U.S. Employment Service in Juneau (1937-1943), Alaska specialist for the War Manpower Commission in Seattle (1943-1944), Tec/3 Sergeant in the U.S. Army (1944-1945), chief of the Alaska Division, Office of Territories, U.S. Department of the Interior (1946-1953), programming director for the Artic Institute of North America (1953-1958), labor relations officer for the Army Corps of Engineers in Anchorage, Alaska (1958-1961), and special assistant to the High Commissioner for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, U.S. Department of the Interior (1962-1964). After retirement, he long served as conservation consultant to the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District, and became its associate director in 1986. He received wide recognition for his work on behalf of conservation and the environment, including an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1993.

From the guide to the Flakne, Joseph T. Papers, 1926-1999, (University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Polar Regions Collections & Archives)

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