William "Bill" Lampe
Juneau resident William "Bill" Boyd Lampe died Dec. 18. 2008, in Juneau. He was 79.
He was born Nov. 28, 1929, in Santa Ana, Manila, Philippines, to Patricia Rizal and Frederic J. Lampe. His mother was a close relative of the Philippine national hero Jose Rizal. His father was a descendant of German immigrants to Minnesota and a medic in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection.
He survived the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in the early 1940s. Japanese soldiers were going house to house, breaking down doors and killing able-bodied men on sight. When they entered the Lampe house, they were amazed at his father's height, 7 feet 3 inches tall, and took him and his father to a prison camp.
His father threw him over a barbed wire fence to save him from dying in prison.
"Run for your life and never look back," his father said to him.
That was the last time Bill saw his father alive.
He and his family fled the city for the mountains and lived there to be safe from the Japanese. They enjoyed living in the jungle forest, one of the happiest times of his life, his family said.
Bill came to Alaska in the summer of 1947 to work in the salmon fishing industry in Kodiak and, in later years, Excursion Inlet, Hoonah and Juneau. He worked at Excursion Inlet Cannery, where he met his future in-laws, Juan and Mary Sarabia.
In 1948, Bill met their daughter, Irene, in Seattle and jokingly said to her, "I'm going to marry you one day." Little did he know they would marry in 1955.
In addition to being a cannery worker, he worked as a sawmill laborer, cook, dishwasher, power troller and maintenance man at the old Federal Building, school district and eventually retiring from Alascom.
He was the last surviving of the old-time Filipino men who came to Southeast Alaska and married Tlingit women. He knew many of the Filipino old-timers of Juneau, many who were employed in his father's brick manufacturing business in Manila.
"An end of an era is truly gone," his family said.
He is survived by his wife, Irene Sarabia Lampe; children and their spouses, Robert and Sarah Lampe, of Hoonah, Richard Lampe, of Hoonah, Clarissa and Bill Hudson, of Pagosa Springs, Colo., Timothy Lampe, Irene J. Lampe, and Deanna Lampe, of Juneau; grandchildren and their spouses, Kahlil and Mikiko Hudson, of Pagosa Springs, Lily Hudson and Ishmael Hope, of Juneau, Ursala Hudson, of Durango, Colo., Amber Lampe, of Anchorage, and Brooke Lampe, of Juneau; two great-grandchildren, Elizabeth Hope, of Juneau, and Violet Hudson, of Pagosa Springs; nephews and their spouses, Richard Villaflor, of Seattle, George Jr. and Jane Lampe, of Seattle, Fred and Gloria Villaflor, of Phoenix, and Mel Tandog, of Stockton; nieces and their spouses, Marlene and Charles Edwards, of Seattle, Patricia and Philip Davis, of Los Angeles, and Jenny and Michael Bradshaw, of Sacramento; and many grandnephews and grandnieces.
He also had a cat, Bingo.
Pallbearers and honorary pallbearers will be listed in the memorial service program.
Services will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 22, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall. For more information, call Irene Lampe at 780-4480, Jean Lampe at 209-5865 or Deanna Lampe at 209-0522. Condolences may be sent to Irene Lampe, P.O. Box 1833, Juneau, AK 99802.