A memorial service and dessert reception for June Haas will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 13, at Haines Presbyterian Church.

A longtime schoolteacher and adventurer who climbed mountains and earned her pilot’s license here in the 1950s, June died Jan. 30, 2025, in Savage, Minnesota, at the age of 90.

Her 58 years in Haines included 30 years as an educator, as well as decades spent volunteering for organizations such as the Haines Woman’s Club, which was instrumental in starting the public library, the American Legion Auxiliary, the Emblem Club, American Cancer Society, BPW and the Lynn Canal Community Players. She held state and national positions for several of these groups.

“I really enjoy working with people, and as long as I am physically able, I will continue to volunteer and encourage others to volunteer. In Alaska, people volunteer, because that’s how we survive. We all help each other,” she said in a 2006 newspaper interview.

June Flodquist Haas was born June 5, 1934, in Burien, Washington, to Carl and Mary Flodquist, a couple who met as college students working together at the cannery in Big Port Walter on Admiralty Island.

Three months after June’s birth, her mother packed her up with an older sister and came north to join Carl in Wrangell, where he worked for the Army Signal Corps. Her father’s subsequent postings in Alaska moved the family between Washington state and Seward, Valdez and Ketchikan. 

“We never lived anywhere for more than two years… Technically we were Army brats, so travel was a part of our lives… But you always meet new people. You never get bored,” June told the interviewer.

June graduated with an elementary education degree from the University of Washington in 1956. She passed on an offer to be a stewardess for Pan Am and accepted a job teaching third grade in Haines. “I’m going home to Alaska,” she said.

While acting in a local theater production, she connected with fellow actor Frank Haas, a serviceman who helped carry her luggage on the day she arrived in Haines. “Some of her first dates with Frank involved trips to the airport where he would hand-prop her plane and read a book while she was up flying,” said son Mike Haas. They married in 1958 and raised two children here.

After earning a master’s degree in education, June moved into special education and started the first gifted and talented program in the State of Alaska. Those programs allowed her to travel to Cuba, Russia, Siberia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, observing local education programs and presenting at conferences.

In 2014, due to deteriorating health, June moved to Minnesota to be closer to family.

She is survived by children Mike (Heather) Haas of Malaga, Washington, Kay (Rick) Dunning of Savage, Minnesota, sister Anne Lizotte, brother Carl Flodquist, as well as six grandchildren: Ryanne and R. Michael Dunning, and James, Abby, Bereket and Yihun Haas, and two great-grandsons, Louie and Charlie Dunning. She was preceded in death by her mother and father, husband Frank, sister Florence Bowen, brother Fred Flodquist, mother-in-law Irene Haas and brother-in-law Peter Haas.

June was buried beside her mother and brother at Evergreen Washelli cemetery in Seattle.

A small service was held there Feb. 16. Donations can be made in June’s memory to the Chilkat Valley Community Foundation, Haines American Legion Auxiliary Scholarship Fund or the Haines Presbyterian Church.