A Fairbanks original.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: Banking industry in Fairbanks, AL

Lifelong native Bill Stroecker is still banking on his hometown.

Despite spending 76 years in Fairbanks - and a good bit of that outdoors - William "Bill" Stroecker has yet to ride a snowmachine.

That doesn't mean he's missed out on anything.

Stroecker, vice president of public relations for Key Bank in Fairbanks, could fill a book with his accomplishments and adventures. An avid trumpet player, he performs regularly in a just-for-fun swing and jazz band, the "Frigidaires." He collects out-of-print books about Alaska, and he spends every possible minute outdoors: boating, hunting, fishing and hiking or snowshoeing into one of the many cabins he owns around the state. In the summer, he tools around in his 1959 powder-blue four-wheel-drive Studebaker pickup truck.

But during the work week, Stroecker can be found at the bank, where he's worked for nearly 50 years. You might say banking is in his blood - his father started working as a teller at First National Bank of Fairbanks in 1918. Ed Stroecker rose through the ranks to become president of the bank. Bill Stroecker's older brother, also named Ed, succeeded his father and Bill Stroecker took over from him.

In 1978, stockholders of First National Bank voted to sell the bank to Alaska Pacific Bank, retaining the bank's original name. Later, Key Bank bought both banks.

Over the years, Stroecker has watched Fairbanks change and grow. He retains an abiding affection for the city and feels a strong responsibility toward its institutions.

The second of three children, Stroecker was born in july, 1920, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Fairbanks. His mother, Maggie Creamer Stroecker, was the daughter of a teamster who ferried Klondike prospectors' gear over the trail from Dyea. Her brother, Charlie, owned Creamer's Dairy.

Bill Stroecker graduated from Fairbanks High School in 1938 and earned a degree in business administration from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1942.

During World War II, Stroecker served in the Army but stayed in Fairbanks and Canada working with the Lend-Lease program. Today, Stroecker lives in a modest house in downtown Fairbanks. He has four stepchildren, one nephew, two nieces and countless cousins. His wife, Eleanor, died in 1996.

Except for three years at a junior college in New Mexico, Stroecker has lived within blocks of his childhood home.

"My life work has been here at the bank," he says. "The banker in a small town lives with his customers. He's with them all day in the...