Doug Pieren

September 29, 1943, Palmer, Alaska — 2019-08, Seldovia, Alaska

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Douglas Pieren, “Doug” was born on September 29, 1943. His mother Shirley Hurd was the daughter of Matanuska Valley Pioneers and came to Alaska as a small child. She met Doug’s dad in Wasilla when he was in the Army. They were married and had two children before they divorced. Doug grew up in the Mat-Su Valley and in Oregon where his dad lived.

When Doug was almost 10 years old, in June of 1953, his mother married Harley Ekren. They had fishing sites in Nikiski and then moved down the the southern Kenai. They homesteaded at Kasitsna Bay and started a cannery that became known as the Ekren Packing Company. Doug came to visit them in 1962 and he came to live in Seldovia in 1972. At that time there was no road between Seldovia and Kasitsna Bay so they came by boat. He never left the Seldovia area. He worked at the Wakefield Cannery for many years.

Doug inherited his gardening skills from his grandmother Hurd. “She could plant a stick and it would sprout.” He began creating gardens in Seldovia in the 1980s and soon he was in charge of not only “Pieren Park” but the area around the Post Office and the Seldovia Village Tribal building and the City Harbor.

In 2009, Doug was honored as Seldovia’s “Old Crab”.

Doug was also an inveterate rock collector. In later years he was never to be seen without several rocks in his pockets or hands. His apartment at the Seldovia House was full of rocks and other artifacts he scavanged from the beaches around Seldovia.

Doug died in August 2019 but his gardens live on all over Seldovia.