Woodrow Woody Johansen
Many of northern Alaska鈥檚 major modern roads were built under the direction of Hendryx Woodrow 鈥淲oody鈥 Johansen, a 1940 graduate in civil engineering.
Johansen grew up in Cordova and graduated as high school valedictorian in 1932. Like many university students of that era, he alternated mining work and school, so college required seven years to complete.
The wartime shortage of teachers drew Johansen back to UA in 1942 鈥 this time as a faculty member. He spent the next decade at the university, becoming head of the Civil Engineering Department.
Johansen then joined the Alaska Road Commission, a federal agency created in 1920. In the years just before statehood, the ARC merged with the Bureau of Public Roads, a sister federal agency that, given Alaska鈥檚 challenging conditions, sometimes was dubbed the 鈥淏ureau of Parallel Ruts.鈥 The federal road agencies became the Alaska Department of Transportation after statehood.
Working up to district engineer in Fairbanks, Johansen stayed with the organization until retiring in 1979. He oversaw the building of the Dalton Highway, the northern half of the Parks Highway and most of the main roads in the Fairbanks area. He also managed construction of the Hickel Highway, an ice road from Livengood to Prudhoe Bay built in 1968 after discovery of the North Slope鈥檚 biggest oil field.
After retirement, Johansen consulted with the Associated General Contractors to untangle a backlog of state projects in the post-oil pipeline boom.
鈥淗e was one of the finest men I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and working with,鈥 wrote Charles Behlke, former dean of the School of Engineering, in an obituary published by The Northern Engineer magazine after Johansen died in 1991. 鈥淗e excelled as a professional engineer, as an academician, and as a human being. He encouraged others to strive for excellence, and helped them to achieve it.鈥
The Johansen Expressway, which connects east and west sides of Fairbanks, was named for him in 1988.
Johansen married his wife, Carolyn, in the early 1940s and they had four children, all of whom remained in Alaska.
More online about Woody Johansen:
- in The Northern Engineer
- in the Rasmuson Library鈥檚 Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives
- at the Rasmuson Library鈥檚 Project Jukebox site
- A with him in the Alaska鈥檚 Digital Archives