Robert Beierly Jr.
Lifetime Juneau resident Robert "Bob" P. Beierly Jr (II) died Oct. 2, 2009, at home after a long battle with lung and heart conditions. He was 69.
He was born June 11, 1940. He loved his nephew, Larry Sweet Sr. of Klukwan and newly adopted nephew, Wilber Donnelly of Juneau.
He served in U.S. Army 82nd Airborn Paratrooper, Special Forces from 1957 to 1964. He was a member of Juneau Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp 2, past member of Juneau Lions Club, and served as a T&H Community Council member. He was a shareholder of Sealaska and Goldbelt corporations; a member of Northern Lights United Church for which he served as Deacon for two terms and a council-member, and part of the Tlingit Gospel Singers.
He started announcing Gold Medal Basketball games with KINY and then with the Juneau Lions Club for 30 years.
He loved basketball and fishing, teaching these skills to his children and other children to keep them off the streets, even sponsoring them through Parks and Recreation. He coached a softball a team and worked with Indian Studies to sponsor a basketball team.
He was one of the major team members that led to the funding and construction of the Tlingit and Haida Community Council building. At that time he started the old timers basketball team ages 35 and older and helped start the Old Timers Basketball Tournament.
He had taken heavy equipment operator schooling and joined the 302 union and worked on the pipeline from beginning to end. He worked many jobs, the last at the Miller House as a youth counselor, where he taught fishing and basketball.
He was preceded by his parents Robert "Bob" Sr. and Ida (James) Beierly; sisters, Roberta Beierly and Roselina Patterson; grandparents, Minnie and Eli Howard, and Billy K. James; uncle, Sandy Johnson; aunt, Katherine Grant; tribal adopted parents, Liz and Charles Jack; and tribal brothers, George Hall and John Jack of Hoonah.
He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Flora Beierly; children, Thomas, Robert III and Marie Beierly, all of Juneau; adopted children, Joan Alice Paloza, Peter Gowen, John Nease, James Johnson, John Castello and George Chappell; sister, Josephine "Bob" Armstrong, of Kennewick, Wash.; and other close family members, James and Gloria Jack, of Juneau, Charles Jack, Thomas Jack and Earnest Jack, all of Hoonah; Mary Jack Wycoft, of Walnut Creek, Calif., John James of Juneau; and many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews.
Pallbearers are Thomas Beierly Sr., Robert Beierly III, John Nease, Larry Sweet, Paul Marks II, John Costello and Joseph Marks.
Honorary pallbearers are Peter Metcalfe, Eric McDowell, Ron Hakala, Ray Peterson, George Finly, Charlie Jack, Thomas Jack, Ernest Jack, James Jack Sr., Mary Jack, Pete Costello and Joe Castello.
A memorial service will be held at 6 p.m. today, Oct. 8, at Tlingit & Haida Community Center. Funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 9, at Northern Light United Church. Burial will follow at Alaskan Mortuary; Veterans section.