The producers of Magnetic North, a series of historical documentaries on interesting and important Alaskans, is calling on Wrangell for photos or home movies of the community and Ed Rasmuson, who managed the town’s only bank branch 1965 to 1967.
Rasmuson may be best known as chairman of the Rasmuson Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization in the state, with almost $700 million in assets as of Dec. 31. Before that, though, he was in the “family business” of banking, said producer Marla Williams.
His grandparents took over the then-failing Bank of Alaska in the early 1900s, she said, and over three generations built it into one of the largest financial institutions in the state. Rasmuson negotiated the sale of the bank to Wells Fargo in 2000.
In 1964, Rasmuson was working in New York’s financial district when his father, Elmer Rasmuson, called him home to help with the bank. He first worked in Ketchikan, Williams said, and then moved to Wrangell to become the bank’s branch manager. He fell in love with the town.
“He loved working in Wrangell,” Williams said. “He loved the people of Wrangell. He loved the outdoors, the fishing and the boating, the flying and the hiking and all of that. It was in Wrangell where he sort of shed the Brooks Brothers suit and put on Xtratufs and his hunting clothes or fishing jacket, and go out and learn in a very personal way from the people of the area what Alaska is about.”
There are two particular points of Rasmuson’s time in Wrangell that Williams is looking at for the documentary. One was around 1967, when his younger sister Judy was in town to visit. They were having dinner at the Elks Lodge, she said, when everyone in the building started calling on him to sing. So, he stood up and sang, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”
When he was called back to Anchorage by his father to take on a bigger role with the bank, the people of Wrangell gave him a watch, Williams said. He still wears it, she said, and still talks fondly of his time in Wrangell.
Williams wants anyone in Wrangell with old photos or home movies to contact her. They are looking for any footage of Rasmuson, the town, the Elks Lodge, or the bank from the 1960s. People can email her at marlawilliams.film@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is June 8.
“I’ve been able to find a little bit of footage in various archives of the state … but not a lot,’” she said.
Williams said there is no timeline for when the hour-long documentary on Rasmuson will be ready for distribution. She said she hopes to have it completed in June, but distribution may take longer.
The documentary will be part of the Magnetic North series, sponsored by the Alaska Humanities Forum and in partnership with the Rasmuson Foundation. Subjects of previous films include former Gov. Bill Sheffield, former Kodiak Judge Roy Madsen, artist Nathan Jackson and others. More information on the series is at http://www.akhf.org/magnetic_north.
“The series explores the personality and character of Alaskans whose actions and ideas have shaped the history, spirit and values of our state,” the website reads.
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