Arnold W. “Andy” Anderson, the youngest of six boys was born on September 24, 1946 on a farm in Carrollton, Illinois to Emert and Gladys (Rider Anderson. His father was a building contractor and built many bowling alleys. In 1960 the family moved to Canton, Missouri and soon thereafter Andy quit school and left home at 16 years of age. He made his way to Alaska and arrived in Seldovia where his brother was already living in May 1964.
When he flew into Seldovia that day with Bob Gruber, owner of Cook Inlet Aviation, he was offered a job before the plane landed. He worked at John’s Sport Shop and booked flights and drove Jack’s courtesy car, an old Volkswagen van. At the time, there were only three vehicles in Seldovia and there weren’t really any roads to drive on. Even more exciting for the teenaged boy from Illinois was jumping in the airplane with Bob to spot goats, moose and fish.
He worked in the canneries those first few years, and then as a commercial fisherman, fishing King crab and later tanner (snow)crab. He moved on to bigger fishing boats and started going to the Bering Islands, Kodiak, and Portlock Banks.
In 1967, Andy married Ann Marie Wilson in Seldovia. They were married neary 47 years when Ann passed from a rare disease. Their daughter Donica Anderson was born in 1968.
They moved to Anchorage in 1974 and Andy worked fishing jobs in Cook Inlet and construction jobs on the North Slope for five years.
The family returned to Seldovia in 1979 and Andy fished halibut until he was offered the job of Chief of Police in Seldovia. What started as a six week temporary job ran on for almost 32 years.
Andy, in his own words: “I’ve got one eye that I lost in a farming accident when I was seven years old. I’m overweight – I’ve always had a weight problem; and I didn’t have a high school diploma. This was not conducive to being a police officer. Anywhere but Seldovia I couldn’t have done it – but I did.” I took on the job as police officer here and – and I guess they say the rest is history. But it was really a learning experience. And I never ever had a job before putting on the badge that I was scared to death of like I was the police job.
*I knew all the people. I had – well, we had partied, we had fought, we had, you know, were friends and the whole nine yards, but I knew everybody but I didn’t know how to police ‘em. And I didn’t know really what that meant. And so over time you do what you can. I made a motto. And this was on the ninth day of – of August ’79 when I – actually talking to myself. I said, well, I got to treat everybody alike. I can’t be different because I know them better or I don’t like this person or I do like this person. So I made a motto for myself that I tried to adhere to my whole career. And that’s treat a drunk like a preacher and a preacher like a drunk. And that was kind of my way of telling me once in a while that, hey, you know, this is what you said you was going to do, now let’s tuck it in here a little bit, you know. So because you do – you have a lot of awesome power by wearing the gun and policing the people. And you can’t abuse the power and I could see where that – that could happen.
*But anyway, that led to my going to Sitka to the Police Academy. One of the best things that ever happened to me. And when I went through Sitka, I learned that I had been libeling the city for a couple years. That there’s a lot to policing a town. That it’s structured – I mean there’s perimeters you cannot go outside of, but it didn’t make any difference to this cowboy, you know, I was trying to do the job. But, you know, it wasn’t like I was pushing my weight around or anything. I just didn’t know what I was doing. And had it not been for the Alaska State Troopers and Homer Police Department, I would’ve never made it. And my wife. I mean, you buy the whole package when you take a badge in this town. The whole family gets to be part of it so – Whether they want to or not. But, so things – things kind of rolled along and time kind of went, you know, and we dealt with a lot of issues. I always have said I know too much about too many and the confidentialities that you have to maintain and everything in this town are – it’s really – It’s hard, it really is. ‘Cause a lot of things I wouldn’t even tell the wife and – and, you know, I mean, the mental thing that you go through with all this laying awake at night and thinking about, I certainly couldn’t put her through that, but it took its toll, as well. But then my daughter, while she was coming up and living here, she had to stay at home. Either her or her mom had to be at home at night to dispatch, because this was where the police phone was and we had a radio system. And so she just hated the police effort. But she now has been 11 years with the Tulalip Police Department as a dispatcher and an evidence officer. So maybe it’s all is worth it in the end, but it’s been quite a ride.
Andy retired from his job as Seldovia’s policeman in 2012 and his wife died in 2014. He always wrote songs, poetry and short stories, but he wanted to become a published author. He followed that dream and ended up publishing 4 books between 2017 and 2020. Ramblings of an Alaskan Bush Poet was his first book because he liked to tell stories in rhyme. Then came a book of short stories and the first two books of Alaska Bush Cop, a series about his time wearing “the badge” in Seldovia. He had completed about 3/4 of the third book in the series before passing and it may be published at a future time. His books are available in bookstores large and small.
Ramblings of an Alaska Bush Poet – A Common Man’s Stories Through Rhyme
Before The Badge: The seven short stories outline many of his experiences between 1964 and 1979. It tells of a young man’s life as he is becoming a man and, when doing so, gets involved in many things which are educational, exciting and at times, life threatening. The seven stories are all true.
Alaska Bush Cop: The Beginning: His first few years of learning be a cop, and many of the stumbling blocks which accompanied him.
Alaska Bush Cop: And the Beat Goes On: The second of what was intended to be a four-book series, outlining his nearly 32-year career as police chief of a small Alaska bush community.