Joseph Coolidge Sr.

April 22, 1941 – Aug. 5, 2021

Mr. Joseph Aurr Coolidge Sr., born to Calvin K. Coolidge and Sophie K. Coolidge (Mezak) on April 22, 1941, in a remote subsistence campsite named Quuyacaur (translated as the narrow part of the river) painted a beautiful picture of life, a roadmap of trails filled with many adventures he would only describe as gifts from God.

Joe, aka: “Aurralria”, named after his paternal grandfather, died at the age of eighty (80) years, on Wednesday, August 5, 2021, at 1:40PM. He had a peaceful death in Providence Alaska Medical Center at Anchorage while trying to recover from a fall in an assisted living home a week prior to passing.

A visitation service was held in Kehl’s funeral home at 1PM, Wednesday, August 11, 2021. Due to COVID-19 mandates, a funeral service inside a church building is not scheduled. Moravian Bishop Frank Chingliaq offered any help and is scheduled to officiate the service on Wednesday.

A memorial service will additionally be held in Aleknagik Alaska, Joe’s choice of place for his final resting ground.

Joe planted memories in us that will continue to flourish in us the rest of our lives.

Joe has had a craving to play a guitar at an early age. Elsie Tanuk’aq Jacobs and Joe were peers and she remembers being with several other kids. When they were small, the little group pretended to play in a band. Joe used a broom as a guitar, another boy would grab a stick or a 2×4 for another guitar.

It just so happened one of Joe’s tasks was to order supplies for their grandma, Aanaq. One day he included a guitar on one of the orders. When the supplies arrived, his grandma picked it up from the post office, drug it back home and said, “Uucillermek-llam-taq pillruuq!” even though she knew Joe ordered it. His grandma said something like, “I didn’t know he ordered this ugly thing!” After Joe learned to play “Farther Along” in church, his grandma quit complaining.

Joe grew up in Nunapitchuk, Alaska and loved to tease his first cousins, singing them a rendition of The Beatle’s tune: “Hey Uquvv” (Hey Jude). He also taught his family guitar by allowing them to follow along while playing The Beatles tunes. Being self taught, he played several instruments by ear. His instrument of choice was his ugly guitar. He was well known in the community and was often asked by his friends, even the elders, to play piano at parties so they can have tunes to dance.

Joe left the village to attend the boarding school in Mt Edgecumbe Alaska.

While serving in the National Guard in the mid 60s, Joe studied electronics and other scholastic classes which led him to several teaching jobs starting with work in Aleknagik, Alaska as an elementary teacher. Joe happened to be his youngest sister’s only high school Yup’ik teacher.

In Bethel, Alaska, he was the Yup’ik voice broadcasting news on the KYUK broadcasting station.

Joe loved to zip down to Eek, Alaska with his Evinrude snow-machine to visit his parents, his brothers, and his sisters. He also worked as a professor in the Kuskokwim Community College teaching the Yup’ik Language to college students and contributed in writing the first published Yup’ik dictionary. Here is a quote from Dr. Walkie Charles, Director of ANLC:

“He was a natural linguist who was eager to learn as much as he can to teach his heritage language,” says Walkie Charles, professor and director of the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The love of music stayed in his life as he recorded gospel tunes with Gusty Chythlook and strummed as a back up guitar player for the Joe Paul and Peter Twitchell albums. Joe was well known for singing Elvis Presley’s original “In My Father’s House” which became Joe’s signature song. Joe Paul allowed him to sing it in one of his albums and KYUK would play it often over the radio. Joe traveled village to village playing lead guitar with Joe Paul and Moses Jacobs. Many tried to emulate Joe’s style of playing but he was in a league of his own.

Joe lived with his ex-wife Nellie Coolidge in many places including Aleknagik Alaska, Palo Alto California, San Diego California, Fairbanks Alaska, Bethel Alaska, and lived solo for his final years in Anchorage Alaska.

Joe is preceded in death by his two younger brothers Charles Angass’aq Coolidge and David Coolidge, parents Calvin and Sophie, ex-wife Nellie Coolidge (Ilutsik), daughter Wilma Karen Coolidge, uncle Jacob Yako Evan, and niece Cheryl J. Brown.

Joe is survived by his daughter, Deborah Coolidge; his sons, Joseph Coolidge Jr. and Darren Coolidge; his grandchildren, Christopher & Brittany Coolidge, Helena Coolidge, Freddy Coolidge, and Autumn Coolidge; the newest member, his great grandson, Sheldon Coolidge, sisters + in-laws, Lucy & Jerry Daniels, Alice & Felix Hess, Sophia Larson, Nan Juli Coolidge, Sally & Pat Samson, Mollyanne & Jerry Rapoza, and his brothers + in-law Arthur & Kathy Coolidge and John Coolidge.

Donations: Contact Juli Coolidge via email: [email protected]. Ashes will be planted near his daughter Wilma Karen Coolidge’s grave in the Aleknagik Moravian Cemetery on Aleknagik North Shore Alaska.