University mourns passing of Professor Emeritus Claus-M. Naske
March 11, 2014
907-474-2417
03/11/14
Claus-M. Naske, professor emeritus of history at the University of Alaska Fairbanks,
former director at the University of Alaska Press and noted Alaska historian, died
March 5 at his home in Fairbanks after a long battle with cancer. He was 78.Naske was born in Stettin, Pomerania, in 1935. His family attempted to flee their home in advance of Russian occupation during World War II, but without success. When the German population was evicted from the province in July 1945, Naske, his mother and sister walked across Germany for months until they reunited with his father in Goslar, in northern Germany.
After the war, he began an agricultural management apprenticeship program. He sought sponsorship to leave Germany and move to Alaska through this program. The Earl W. Barry family in Palmer agreed to sponsor him and he moved there in 1954, working on their dairy farm and attending high school.
In 1957, Naske moved to Fairbanks to attend UAF, and graduated in 1961 with a bachelor of arts degrees in history and political science. He received a master of arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1964 and his doctorate from Washington State University in 1970. He returned to UAF as a faculty member in 1969. He taught at the university until his retirement in 2001, and served as the director of the University of Alaska Press from 1988-2004. Naske received the Usibelli Award for Research in 2001 and the UAF Distinguished Alumnus award in 2012.
Naske's status as a leading Alaska historian is supported by his prolific publishing history, including "Alaska, A History" (1979), widely considered the gold standard work on the state. He captured respect and attention on local, state, federal and international levels for his documentation of Alaska's development from a Russian outpost to a U.S. territory to a state, and was an expert on numerous topics within the realm of Alaska history, including the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1970, the effect of the oil industry and the trans-Alaska pipeline on the economy, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The Naske family is planning a memorial potluck Saturday, April 12, at 5 p.m at the Elks Lodge in Fairbanks.
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