Gastineau Channel Memories

Eastaugh, Frederick Orlebar

Alison Eastaugh Browne

Frederick Orlebar Eastaugh was born in 1913, in Nome, Alaska. His father, Ted Eastaugh, came from England to Nome during the gold rush in 1889. Fred?s grand uncle was a mining engineer on the Seward Peninsula in the 1890?s. His mother, Lucy Ladd of California, came to Nome to teach school. She and Ted met and married and had two sons: William Eastaugh (who later settled in Wrangell with his wife Doris and two sons, Ted and Dennis) and Frederick Orlebar.

Fred graduated from the U. of Washington and during the summer worked for the Alaska Steamship Line as a freight clerk aboard and purser. He was an excellent, creative photographer, and developed this skill while taking many beautiful photographs of Alaska during ship travel. His photographs were featured in his own exhibit at a gallery in Seattle. Fred worked for Pan American World Airways from 1940-46 in Juneau, Fairbanks, San Francisco, and Seattle. He married Carol in 1942. They met in 1933, when he was in Juneau working on the addition to St. Ann?s Hospital. He worked for Pacific Northern Airways as an accountant, and then took a cut in pay to work for PAA, helping develop an accounting system for its operations in Alaska.

In 1946, Fred and Carol moved permanently to Juneau, where he joined the law firm of Robertson & Monagle as a clerk. He read law and was admitted to the bar in 1948. He became a partner in 1958, and retired from the firm Robertson Monagle Eastaugh in 1988. His specialty was mining law. He served as municipal magistrate in Juneau from 1950-55, and as municipal attorney from 1955-62, and was city attorney for Juneau, Skagway, and Wrangell.

Fred was elected to the House of Representatives of the 21st Territorial Legislature and served two years from 1953-54.

Fred loved gardening and boating. He was a Taku River Rat, having built a 22-foot Storey Sharpshooter boat himself and having taken it up the Stikine River. He also enjoyed sailing. He was an avid long-time skier. Fred died of cancer at his home in 1992.