Watterson Construction: building Alaska.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: Alaska's Top 49ers: Featured 49er

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Some Alaskans are born here; others follow their parents north at a young age; and some take a lifetime to migrate to the Last Frontier. But what many Alaskans have in common is a love for Alaska's beauty and a respect for its challenges. It's not surprising then, that Alaska owned companies achieve new heights of success year after year, including Watterson Construction, which is once again one of Alaska Business Monthly's Top 49ers.

The Men Who Lead

Bill Watterson, president, grew up on the family dairy in Centralia, Washington. He turned his sights up north and decided to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks, "before it was UAF, when it was just University of Alaska," he says.

He decided to attend for the basketball as well as and the engineering program, but while he was there he ended up meeting his wife. They both say that if they had it to do over again, they wouldn't change a thing.

"It was the best thing for both of us," he says, "not just because we met there, but because, in my major courses, I had maybe ten students in my classes ... [And] there were good job opportunities after that."

Bill and his wife lived and worked down south for a while before returning to Alaska in 1972 founding Watterson Construction 1981.

Jim Watterson, executive vice president, didn't start the company with his brother Bill, but was involved quickly thereafter in 1989. He worked for a large, national contractor for sixteen years, moving around the country with his wife. They settled in Beaverton, Oregon, with their three children for about fifteen years, where he started to work with Bill.

"I tell people I'm the first telecommuter because I started working out of my house with a phone that had an AB switch for a fax line," Jim says. Jim is now also residing in Alaska. "I had been working with Bill all the time, and when he wanted to start slowing down some, I told my wife, 'I guess we're moving to Alaska.'"

The Watterson family was made for construction. "Our older brother is in Washington, and he's been a lifetime construction superintendent and finally retired a couple years ago," Bill says. "No one, I don't think, enjoys the construction industry more than we do."

"Every time we start a new job it's a challenge," he says. For example, on a current project, a second hangar at Fort Wainwright, Watterson has a three and a half week delay on the structural steel delivery, requiring that tasks which had been scheduled for this...