Alaska bill proposes renaming road for late Kenai professor

KENAI, Alaska — An Alaska legislator has introduced a bill to rename a road to honour a late professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College.

The legislation to rename a road in front of the college for Alan Boraas was introduced by Rep. Gary Knopp, R-Kenai, the Peninsula Clarion reported Wednesday.

Knopp’s sponsor statement for House Bill 208 proposed that College Road near Soldotna be renamed Alan Boraas Road to “honour the tremendous impact that Alan had on the Kenai Peninsula and around the state of Alaska.”

Boraas is credited with locating numerous Denaina heritage and historical sites along the road.

The effort to change the name to memorialize Boraas came from the University of Alaska and the community, Knopp wrote.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly passed a resolution Tuesday supporting the bill. The resolution called Boraas a “pillar of the community.”

Boraas moved to the Kenai Peninsula in 1972 and spent much of his career studying the history of the Kenai Peninsula. Along with the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, he helped develop a Denaina language program.

The Kenaitze Indian Tribe granted Boraas honorary membership in 2002.

Boraas was recognized for his work with the Log Cabin Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kenai Chamber of Commerce, the Edith R. Bullock Prize for Excellence from the University of Alaska Foundation and the American Book Awards’ Book of the Year accolade for “Dena’ina Legacy, K’tl’egh’I Sukdu: The Collected Writings of Peter Kalifornsky.”

The Associated Press