Dr. Richard Dauenhauer

Funeral services will be held on Thursday, August 28, 2014 for Dr. Richard Dauenhauer, 72, former Alaska Poet Laureate, who fell asleep in the Lord here on August 19, 2014.  In view of construction at Juneau’s Saint Nicholas Church, the funeral will be celebrated at Saint Paul Church, 9055 Atlin Ave., Juneau, at 10:00 a.m.  His Grace, Bishop David will preside.

A noted historian, linguist, editor and educator, Dr. Dauenhauer made particularly important contributions to the preservation of Tlingit lore and language.  According to Rosita Worl, Executive Director of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which published major work by Dr. Dauenhauer and his wife, Nora Marks Dauenhauer, his “contributions to Tlingit culture are immeasurable….  He brought to life the words and wisdom of our ancestors that otherwise might have passed into oblivion but for his persistence in collecting the stories and his ability to transcribe and translate and publish the oral traditions of our ancestors….  His Tlingit language grammars have been significant in contributing to the survival of our language.”

Born in Syracuse, NY in 1942, he earned degrees in Russian, Slavic and German before coming to Anchorage in the late 1960s to teach at Alaska Methodist University.  He published translations of Russian poetry but had a particular interest in bardic traditions of ancient civilizations.  At AMU—today Alaska Pacific University—he met his future wife, with family roots in Yakutat and Hoonah and fluency in the Tlingit language and traditions. Through her, he realized that the epic literary style of “Beowulf” and “Iliad,” centuries removed from contemporary Western society, remained within living memory in Southeast Alaska.  Together, the Dauenhauers became a formidable team, recording, documenting and translating the memories of Tlingit elders over a span of nearly a half-century. Their many published works range from doctoral theses to elementary primers.

Dr. Dauenhauer learned Tlingit and taught upper-division classes in the language at the University of Alaska Southeast. UAS Chancellor John Pugh tapped him to start the college’s Alaska Native Languages and Culture program. Though he was scholar of several languages, it was those of Alaska that most concerned him. “Nothing that we do in German or Russian at the University of Alaska Southeast is going to impact the future of the language,” he told the Associated Press in 2005. “But with Alaska Native languages we can make a difference. With the Native languages in Alaska, this is the homeland, and if the language dies out here it dies out forever.”

In addition to his work as a collector, anthologist, translator and editor, Dr. Dauenhauer was a well-respected poet, like his wife, the current Alaska writer laureate.  His poetry was infused with faith, reflecting his commitment to the Church as a reader and singer at Saint Innocent Cathedral, Anchorage, AK during its earliest formative years, and later at Juneau’s Saint Nicholas Church.  He helped launch, design and fund the “creation of the world” Tlingit-style beaded vestments that have been on display around the world since they were completed by his mother-in-law, Emma Marks, and Matushka Xenia Oleksa. He was instrumental in securing funds for a series of liturgical recordings in Tlingit and in Aleut, cassette tapes that preserve the voices of elders now long-gone sung from memory and from the heart in their own languages.  His contributions to the Church in general and the Diocese of Alaska in particular will long be remembered.