Remembering Isaac Juneby

I returned home to Fairbanks yesterday to news that Isaac Juneby had been killed in a car accident in Anchorage last week. The son of gifted Han orator Willie Juneby, Isaac was a tireless activist for Han Athabascan language and culture, and his passing represents a great loss to those efforts. Over the years Isaac had participated in language workshops at the Yukon Native Language Centre and the Alaska Native Language Center. He wrote and recorded curriculum booklets and language lessons. He even taught a class on Han language for linguistics students at University of Alaska. No wonder that a story in the Alaska Dispatch describes him as a "renaissance man."

More than anything else Juneby will be missed for his easy smile and constant optimism. Even though he sometimes worked against great odds, he never appeared discouraged or disappointed. He was always eager to help and offer a kind word. I experienced this personally many times -- most memorably when we were both living in Tok and I was working to document the Tanacross language. Faced with what seemed a daunting task, it was Isaac who encouraged me to keep going, hang in there. Surely many others can recall similar memories of Isaac.

A memorial service will be held in Fairbanks at the David Salmon Tribal Hall on Monday, July 9 at 4:00 pm.

An obituary can be view here.