Local fisherman celebrates 100th birthday

A lifelong Wrangell resident, Lawrence Bahovec, just celebrated his 100th birthday this week.

Asked how he felt about reaching the milestone, he joked: "It makes me feel old."

He was born in Chicago on January 4, 1917. Alaska and Hawaii both were still territories at the time, the United States had not yet joined into the fighting alongside the Allied Powers during the Great War, and Wrangell was still very much a frontier town on the nation's periphery.

At a very young age, Bahovec was brought back to Alaska to live in Wrangell with his mother and three sisters.

"Oh my gosh, when we first came here it was a lot different than now," he recalled. The mudflats abutting Front Street had yet to be filled in, the plank road only went so far, and beyond that were just rugged pathways. There was door-to-door milk delivery, back when the Nore family owned a dairy – Cow Alley next to Stikine Drug got its name from their movements – and it wouldn't be until 1939 before Wrangell got its first refrigerator.

While still a boy, his father, a fisherman out of Haines, put he and his sisters in a home there until they were able to attend school in Sitka. At one point Bahovec was tasked with looking after his father's mink farm, but wanting something different, he stowed aboard a steamship bound for Seattle.

An elderly friend had left him some money to put toward higher education. "It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to pay tuition," Bahovec recalled, enough to cover books and materials. At the University of Washington, Bahovec studied art.

"I've always been interested in art. So was my dad," he explained.

Afterward he returned to Wrangell, and went in with two friends on the construction of a wooden seiner, which they named Lalowa.

"When we first started fishing they called us creek robbers," he said. The seasons were longer and catch more bountiful in those days, and eventually Bahovec was able to buy out his friends' shares in the boat. He kept improving on Lalowa, teaching himself what he needed in the course of different projects, from wiring and woodworking to installing running hot and cold water onboard. "It was not heard of when I first started out," he said of the latter. "I had to do everything on my own."

In due time he upgraded to a larger boat, which he called the Aurora Marie. "It used to be a cannery tender called XL," he explained. After it was wrecked in a rocky run-in, the local cannery towed her back to Wrangell. Bahovec tore the boat down and rebuilt it, and gave it the new name at his first wife's suggestion.

"That was a nice name, we thought," he said.

He spent much of the last century fishing, working one season to the next. "I've probably fished in every area of southeast Alaska. Anan was the favorite spot for everyone. We made half our season there."

The stock there was eventually run down by the gillnetters, and Bahovec traveled further afield for his catch, mainly down to Ketchikan. Twice he recalled "flying the broom" as he pulled into harbor, tying a broom to the top of the mast to let everyone know he caught 100,000 fish.

"That used to be quite an honor at one time," Bahovec said. "I'm real proud of that."

The Aurora Marie had a crew of five, and among the people he hired over the years he met his future wife, Sylvia.

"I was the first boat in Wrangell to hire women," he pointed out. "I asked, 'Can you cook?' My God, she was insulted. She was a very good cook."

She was also a hard worker, a good fisherman, and had a shared love for art. The two married in 1980, and were together for 33 years. During that time they bought a house up on the hill, she opened up a shop near Front Street, and Bahovec continued fishing.

During his free time, he continued producing artwork, working with wood and other materials.

"He's still going all the time, making stuff, doing stuff," commented his niece, Lisa Messmer. "He's always doing something."

Bahovec finally had to hang up his nets in the late 1990s, after injuring himself in an accident. "After that I had to find someone else to take over, and eventually sold the boat," he said. "It was a nice life. I loved it when the weather was nice. Of course, we ran into a lot of bad weather."

He attributed his lengthy lifespan to his time at sea.

"I think that's a lot to do with it. If you're out in the ocean, you get fresh air. And of course, you have good food," he added. It may well run in the family too, as one of his sisters still lives down in the Washington D.C. area, approaching her own centenary.

He and Sylvia travelled quite a bit as well, visiting Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Fiji, Samoa and elsewhere.

"We've had some wonderful trips," he recalled. "The finest trip that Sylvia had was when we went to Yugoslavia," back in 1984.

His father was there at the time, visiting family. "He sent us a message: Get over here and meet your relatives," said Bahovec.

The couple quickly made arrangements and headed over. "We were treated like royalty." In fact, he learned the Bahovecs were royalty, granted a baronet by the king before the country was taken over by the communists in 1945.

"While we were there, they decided to make a documentary about my dad and I meeting in Yugoslavia." Visiting his father's birthplace, and number of castles and resort towns, the group was shadowed by a film crew and photographers.

"We had a lot of fun," said Bahovec.

He passed on his fishing legacy, with grandchildren through Sylvia's family continuing in the field. She passed away after a bout with pancreatic cancer, in June 2013.

"I wish she was here. She could remember so much," Bahovec remarked. He still lives at home, with his two dogs, Sir James and Lavender. He will be spending his 100th birthday with many friends and relatives on Wednesday, with a party planned at the Stikine Inn that afternoon.