GOLDPANNERS TEAM FOUNDER & FORMER ALASKA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR H.A.
“RED” BOUCHER:
“Throughout his entire life, Bill
has been what I like to refer to as an ‘opportunity maker.’ When that
young bank helped the prospector or the small businessman get into
business in the early history of Fairbanks one hundred years ago, the
Stroecker family has always been there. And Bill has been right out in
front. I came to Fairbanks from 20 years in the Navy in 1958. I started
a little sporting goods store on Cushman Street at the Sullivan Building
called “Pan Alaska Sports.” I wanted to make a contribution to the
community by starting a youth baseball program. So we cranked that up in
1960, and by 1961 and 1962 we were going quite well. We won the North of
the Range League championship, and several other state championships. In
1962, we were invited to participate in the National Baseball Congress
World Series in Wichita, Kansas. Now, to take a bunch of young men to
Wichita was going to require a considerable amount of money. And though
I loved baseball, it just wasn’t within the budget of Pan Alaska Sports.
So, I decided to go and visit this banker I’d heard about: Bill
Stroecker. And when I went in and told him what I wanted to do, Bill
told me about baseball and his family. His dad, Ed, played baseball in
the early days - in the early 1900s -- when the Midnight Sun Game kicked
off. Bill said “how much do you need” and at that time I think it was
going to cost a couple of thousand dollars. He suggested that I go visit
Bill Snedden at the Dialy News-Miner and that he would contact other
people. Within three days, the Goldpanners had enough to go to Wichita,
and I thought that the days of the “Pan-Alaska Goldpanners” were past,
so it was now to be the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks. Since that
time, when we went to Wichita and came within one run of winning the
national championship, the Goldpanners board was formed, and Bill has
been the President of it every since. Today, the Goldpanners team is
considered the finest amateur baseball program in the world. Over 185
men have gone on to the major leagues from the Goldpanners alone. By
creating opportunities for the young men we have Hall of Famers such as
Tom Seaver, and Dave Winfield that trace their beginnings right back to
the Golden Heart City and the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks. Tom
Seaver, who pitched the “Amazin’ Mets” to the 1969 World Series
championship, in a letter to me in 1969, when he won his first Cy Young
Award, summed it up for all the players who have passed through
Fairbanks and the Goldpanners program. He stated, “without the
opportunity the Goldpanners gave me, I would probably never be enjoying
the award I am about to receive.” Tom went on the be inducted into the
Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in the 90s, and at Cooperstown he
said the same thing. But way behind the scenes in all of this has been
this one man.. Bill Stroecker. I would like to thank him from the bottom
of my heart, not only for being the steadfast and only President of the
Goldpanners Board of Directiors, but I’d like to thank him for all the
wonderful things that have happened to me in my 50 years in the State of
Alaska. I trace it all back to Bill Stroecker asking me “how much do you
need” and then going out in three days and getting the job done.”
|
Recipient of the Distinguished Citizen
Award from the Boy Scouts of America.
The son and grandson of
pioneering Alaskan families, William G. “Bill” Stroecker has chosen to make
Fairbanks his home for life. This commitment to our fair city has been
reinforced by short stints spent outside during education and service years,
and now occasional trips outside. Born in the summer of 1920, he has lived
in a one square mile area with no plans to change that pattern.
A 1942 graduate of the University of Alaska with a degree in Business
Administration, he joined the U.S. Army and helped send American airplanes
to Russia in the Army’s lend-lease effort at Ladd Field, now Ft. Wainwright.
In 1947, after Sgt. Stroecker’s enlistment was up, he obtained a job as
bookkeeper at the First National Bank of Fairbanks. He became Chairman and
President of the bank in 1967 and served in that capacity until 1977. Bill
is still a fixture at that bank, today owned by the KeyBank Corporation.
Bill is committed to the time he spends with the charities and causes he
supports, which include serving as President of the Alaska Goldpanners, a
board member since its inception of the Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital
Foundation, a life member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board, and a
longtime board member of the Friends of the University of Alaska Museum. He
takes pride in the time he spends on fundraising efforts, and is a
co-trustee for a foundation that makes annual donations to more than 40
local charities.
Priority items for Bill Stroecker are his weekend retreats to cabins
throughout Alaska, hunting and fishing trips, and playing trumpet with his
band, the three-piece “Frigid-Aires” of Fairbanks. With family throughout
Fairbanks and his civic duties with multiple foundations, William G. “Bill”
Stroecker will remain an active supporter of our city and a Distinguished
Citizen of Fairbanks. |
