Howard Farley, Sr.

Howard Farley Sr. was born in 1932 in Detroit, Michigan and after World War II his family moved west. After the death of his father, Howard’s mother worked for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) moving from station to station, and finally ended up in Seattle, Washington, when Howard was a teenager. She later worked for one of the airlines, which in 1949 gave her an opportunity to fly the family to Juneau, Alaska for a visit. This is when Howard fell in love with Alaska. While serving in the US Coast Guard, Howard returned to Alaska when his ship anchored off of Nome. He left the Coast Guard in 1953, earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and agriculture from Washington State University, and became a journeyman butcher. In November 1959, Howard returned to Nome to work as a butcher for the Northern Commercial Company store, and made Nome his permanent home. He went on to work as a butcher at various other places in Nome, obtained a dog team and got involved in the tourism business, helped organize and ran in the first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1973, has been a commercial fisherman, and runs his own business, Farley Marine, that provides pilot boat, ship-to-shore transportation, and charter boat services. He has also served on the local Fish and Game Advisory Board, and contributed time to the City Port Commission, the Library and Museum Commission, and the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation. Howard Farley, Sr. passed away in January 2024 at the age of 91. For more about Howard, see his obituary in the Anchorage Daily News.