Gastineau Channel Memories

Bolyan, Hilja Ilona Reinikka

Clyde E. Bolyan

Hilja was born in 1914, in Douglas, Alaska. She received her grade and high school education in Douglas schools graduating in 1932. Hilja moved on to the Alaska Agriculture and School of Mines at College and graduated with a degree in Business Administration. This was the first year that the school became known as the University of Alaska. She graduated with the highest grades of any student up to that time. After graduation,
she went to work for the Rockefeller Foundation writing and cataloging the early history of Alaska. This work was conducted in Washington, D.C., at the Library of Congress. Hilja returned to Alaska and married Clyde Bolyan in 1938. They lived in Cobol and Douglas until 1941 when they moved to California. She died in 1994, and is buried in Angelus Memorial Park in Anchorage.