Tom McGuire,79, died Feb. 6 while skating on Chilkoot Lake near the home where he and wife, Sally, raised their four children. The family will celebrate his life at a later date.

McGuire published two acclaimed novels in his 70s. “Steller’s Orchid” won an Independent Publisher’s silver medal for the best Pacific/West fiction of 2019. “The Curve of Equal Time” (2024) was inspired by his 30 years as a deckhand on the Southeast seiner, Aimee O.  

Former Alaska Writer Laureate and Anchorage Daily News literary critic Nancy Lord, says the books “are among the best of contemporary Alaska literature, so steeped in observation and knowledge of Alaska history, natural history, and life, and beautifully written. His work deserves a lot more readership.”

McGuire traveled thousands of miles on northern rivers, often against the current. “Tom canoed up more rivers than most people will canoe down,” friend and river guide Michael Wald said. “It says something about not just his skill, but his creativity. He took the time to see the beauty and explore Alaska without the budget for a fly-in trip.”

Son Rafe paddled with his father down the McKenzie River, up the Rat River, then down the Bell and Porcupine rivers to the Yukon. Daughter Rosemary canoed with him from Kaktovik, up the Kongakut, portaged to the Sheenjek, and ultimately connected to the Yukon. McGuire also ran fishing boats up and down the Inside Passage with his adult children. 

McGuire supported his family by working as a laborer on the North Slope and as a salmon fisherman.  

“He was a proud member of the laborer’s union,” daughter Rosemary said. 

He taught a class in labor union history for the membership, thanks in part to his Ivy League education. Fishing at Lutak, he’d challenge his children to poetry recitations. 

Daughter Rebecca McGuire said, “After four lines, I was done. He did the ‘Canterbury Tales.’”

He loved the company of his family, especially grandchildren, reading, dogs, baseball (the Detroit Tigers), Motown tunes and home-baked cookies. 

“Dad put a real value on being nice to people,” Rosemary said. 

Thomas McGuire was born in 1945 in Dearborn, Mich., and grew up in Marquette and Ann Arbor. His parents were educators. His father later worked for Ford and his mother became a homemaker. Two sisters, Kathy Marks and Ann Craig, survive. His brother, Daniel, died in 2024. 

Educated in Catholic schools, McGuire could name a saint for every situation. He graduated from Yale in 1967 and earned a master’s degree in linguistics from the University of Michigan. In 1969 he drove to Alaska with college friends and later wrote that he never found a “a reason to leave.”  

He did find two good reasons to stay. Mucking out a barn in Fairbanks at the university’s experimental farm, he met his future bride, Sally Welcome Luick, and connected with adventurer Charlie Wolf (then 70).

McGuire’s first book is titled “99 Days on the Yukon: An Account of What was Seen and Heard in the Company of Charles A. Wolf, Gentleman Canoeist.” Wolf called himself Charlie Loup (French for wolf) and ostensibly took McGuire along for French lessons.  

McGuire wrote, “I learned from him the groundwork of canoeing but something more than that. Something about the way in which things ought to be done.” McGuire adopted the Wolf style, taking his time, using the same type of aluminum canoe and “old school” pack baskets, Duluth duffles, wool clothes and cast-iron cookware. 

Halfway through the trip, McGuire was struck by lightning.  

Wolf flagged down a good Samaritan with an outboard who skiffed the unconscious patient 18 miles upriver to a hospital. A few days later, McGuire resumed the second half of the paddle with no memory of the event, singed hair and burn marks on his torso and neck. When Wolf told him he had stayed close to catch his last words, a chagrined McGuire wrote: “After being flat that way … I probably would have said something like ‘egg salad to go, hold the pickle.’” 

Tom and Sally McGuire wed in Fairbanks in 1971 and shortly afterward embarked on a multi-month canoe trip from the Peace River in Alberta to Hudson’s Bay in northeastern Canada.

McGuire built a home on Happy Road in Fairbanks without power tools. All of their children were born there. A chance meeting in 1976 led to a summer job on a seiner, complimenting his winter oil field work. In 1985 they moved to Haines, living in a wall tent while he built the house.

Neighbor and bear biologist Anthony Crupi said McGuire helped his family build their house too, treating them as family and in the process became a great friend. 

“He’d see something we needed and the next thing we’d know he’d built us a shower,” Crupi said. “Tom was so knowledgeable. He was the person that when you needed an answer to anything, you called. He taught me more about bears than I knew.”

He leaves Sally, his wife of over 50 years; children Rebecca McGuire and grandchildren Torleif, Halfdan and Gunnar; Gabriel McGuire (Saniya Karpykova) and their children Iris and Rian; Rosemary McGuire; Rafe McGuire (Sally Boisvert) and their children Colleen and Cormac. 

The family has asked that memorial donations be made to The Alaska Dive, Search, Rescue and Recovery Team, an all-volunteer non-profit that doesn’t charge for services and helped to find Tom. Online at Alaska Dive Rescue or at 7004A Gold Kings Ave., Anchorage, AK 99504.