Everts father and son honored as UAF business leaders of the year

April 3, 2018

Photo courtesy of the Everts family. Cliff Everts, left, and Rob Everts.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Management will honor Cliff and Rob Everts as business leaders of the year during a sold-out dinner and award ceremony at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 7, in the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel’s Gold Room.

This is the first-ever father-and-son duo to be recognized with the honor, now in its 42nd year.

Cliff Everts was born in Yonkers, New York, to parents who had both emigrated from Germany to New York. Cliff traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, in 1943 to work for Alaska Star Airlines (now Alaska Airlines). Soon after, he moved to Fairbanks and worked for Wien Airlines for 35 years. In 1980, he founded his own enterprise, Everts Air Fuel.

Cliff passed away on Dec. 7, 2017, at the age of 95. His nomination for this honor was already underway at that time, and the Everts family will accept the award in his memory.

Rob Everts followed his father Cliff into the aviation business, working for the family businesses while growing up and learning to fly at the age of 14.

“The Everts boys have always dreamed big,” Rob Everts said. “We always wanted large aircraft and perhaps to someday become a legacy carrier; but, at the end of the day, happiness and family trumps everything.”

Rob Everts earned a bachelor's degree in aeronautical science and became vice president of Everts Air Fuel in 1982. In 1993, he purchased Tatonduk Outfitters Ltd., a Fairbanks-based air carrier providing scheduled services to Interior Alaska's villages, and expanded it to include large aircraft operations. Rob has continued expanding the business over the years, which now does business as Everts Air Cargo and Everts Air Alaska flying in the United States, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean Islands.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Tammy Tragis-McCook, 907-474-7042, tjtragismccook@alaska.edu.

ON THE WEB: http://www.uaf.edu/som