Robert Retherford, president: Alaska Earth Sciences.

• Author: Gallion, Mari
• Position: View from the Top

The family of Robert Retherford moved from Lewiston, Idaho to Alaska pre-statehood--in 1950--when his father, an electrical engineer, was offered a position as the first engineer for Chugach Electric Association. While pulling a trailer up the Alaska Highway, truck and trailer combined suffered thirty flat tires, one for every foot in trailer length, and six broken limbs. Rutherford's residency began in the Sand Lake area of Anchorage, where he learned to milk a cow, raise chickens, and care for horses. He also helped his father build the first telephone network in Anchorage, stringing wire through the woods and linking up old hand cranks.

Retherford is now the president of Alaska Earth Sciences (AES), a full-service geologic consulting firm that meets the challenges of geologic engineering and supporting all aspects of mineral and energy exploration. With decades of experience, AES supports assessments of a wide range of commodities and geologic environments in Alaska and world-wide.

SCHOOL CAN BE COOL: I graduated from Anchorage (now West) High School in 1965. After high school I attended Alaska Methodist University (now APU) then travelled to Honolulu with a friend to attend the University of Hawaii. Finally settling on geology as my major, I moved to the University of Colorado, eventually finishing my MS degree thesis studying sea level shifts along the British Columbia [Canada] coast. During college, my summers were filled with remote field programs, and I loved the life. I had opportunities to search for ore deposits, to map geology near hydroelectric sites, and to work on the Alaska Pipeline foundation studies.

LEARNING WHAT YOU LOVE: Between 1972 and 1980 I worked primarily in minerals exploration. I began right out of college with Chuck Hawley (C.C. Hawley and Associates). I learned to fly at this time, and we purchased an old Cessna that I could...