Golden memories: company celebrates 50 years of 'awarding' excellence.

• Author: Resz, Heather A.
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: TOP WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSES

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Some people arrive in Alaska by sea, some by air and some take the Alaska Highway--but few people can equal Glenn Bovey's story of how he arrived in Alaska.

After joining the U.S. Army in 1951, he was stationed in Colorado and Seattle before being reassigned to Fort Richardson. A boat carried Bovey's unit to Haines and dropped them off.

From there, Bovey said he and his fellow soldiers spent the next 28 days walking to Fort Richardson. The military wanted to know how feasible it was to bring troops in on foot, Glenn said.

This Waterloo, Iowa, boy arrived in Anchorage in September 1951 and served as the first non-commissioned officer in charge of the newly built Buckner Fieldhouse on Fort Richardson.

It was the fieldhouse's second officer in charge who would eventually put Bovey on the path to business ownership.

After leaving the army in 1956, Glenn and wife Therese "Terry" Bovey started Bovey Trophies on April 15, 1958. Both from Waterloo, Iowa, the two married in 1952 and Terry joined Glenn in Anchorage.

"I never thought I'd be in the business that long," Glenn said. "I was just happy to make it through the first year."

Bovey Trophies, 841 W. Fireweed Lane, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year under the ownership of Pam Kennally who purchased the shop in 2003.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Back when Boveys started the business, Henry Heggen's downtown store was the young city's only trophy and engraving shop.

"He used to send me business when I was selling trophies for $1.75," Glenn Bovey recalled during an interview at Bovey Trophies in June. "Henry said I wouldn't be in business more than a year."

All those years ago, Terry Bovey was among those who doubted the soundness of husband's business idea. It would be another six years before the young couple could afford to give up the steady paycheck she earned at working at the Anchorage Hotel, she said.

Bovey Trophy moved from its first location into a back room that was only accessible by walking through a coffee shop in the basement of the Anchorage Hotel, where the Anchorage Hilton Hotel is now.

"There wasn't even an entrance off the street," Glenn said.

He said he rented the downtown place for $125 a month, one block from Heggen's shop, but he didn't know that in the winter it would cost him more in fuel oil than it did in rent.

'HEY, BOV, YOU SPELLED MY NAME WRONG'

To market their new endeavor, Glenn joined the Elks Club and they both joined bowling leagues--Glenn...