ALASKA BUSH PILOT

About the Book

A witty and entertaining account of a four-year journey fi lled with determination, prayer and hard work awaits, as lecturer and current long-time Emergency Room physician, Dr. Keith Hooker, shares his memories in the new book ALASKA BUSH PILOT. As a medical doctor sent to treat the native population of Alaska in the 1960’s, Keith takes the reader on a nostalgic and engaging trip to a place he yearned to know and ended up loving, as he recalls why and how he did it, despite the diffi culty and the challenges of that era. It was 1966 when Keith Hooker, fi nishing his internship in Riverside, CA, was given an assignment from the prestigious Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. He received further training, then re-located to Alaska, the relatively new 49th State. His mission, to combat an epidemic of tuberculosis that was endangering the lives of Eskimo and Inuit native people. His spirited and positive nature is apparent, as dreams became reality; he and his wife, in a humorous re-telling, pack their earthly belongings, as well as their two rambunctious little boys, into a cramped VW Beetle and begin their journey on the 1200 milelong ALCAN Highway: North to Alaska! His journals recount life among the unique and often isolated Alaskan villages, and the pages overfl ow with wonderfully droll stories and adventures. Soon, Medical ‘on-call rounds’ that might be 1000 miles long, make owning an airplane a practical necessity and the rest of Keith’s medical goings-and-comings are accomplished with his original brand of ‘fl ying by the seat of his pants’, as he describes it. The reader goes along for the ride as Keith experiences making house calls by dog sled, snowmachines of indeterminate and questionable condition and even the fragile-appearing walrus-skin boats. The Eskimos honor him with hunting trips, ‘Polar style’, and perform age-old native dances, further cementing his devotion to those noble people. His admiration for them grows as he weathers the changing climate of Alaska, visiting tiny villages of only a few humble huts and bringing medical care to those in need. You’ll meet big game hunters, bush preachers, moon shiners, and other characters you’ll never forget. Keith brought back a fortune in memories of the culture and the people that were 1960’s Alaska….and the vibrant, majestic entity it still is. Along the way, his biting, self-depreciating humor runs as swift and deep as a swollen Alaskan river. Keith learns much about life, family, and Faith, as he becomes, forever in the minds of the Alaskan people ‘Dok-tor Nik-Sik’.

About the Author

Keith Hooker, on his return from Alaska, began teaching an Outdoor Survival course at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. In 1972, he instigated rural health programs, after seeing a need in small rural areas and then set up, and made regular calls to the clinics up and down the state; he was also among the fi rst to train and utilize Nurse Practitioners. He co-founded Youth Rehab Wilderness Programs and serves still as Physician backup for several in a three-state area. Voted Utah’s Emergency Physician of the Year in 1989 and 1997, Keith is a popular lecturer and speaker, as well as an Advisor for many EMT units and paramedic departments throughout the State. At present, Keith remains a longtime ER Doctor at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah. Keith enjoys life, living in Mapleton, Utah with his wife of fi ve years, Juanita Weber-Hooker. Between them, the couple has 11 children and 36 grandchildren; they both enjoy traveling in their Cessana 182. They have visited Alaska to look up Keith’s old friends there and plan more trips in the future. Keith is an avid mountain climber and has scaled Mount Everest and Mt. McKinley, among others. He is a staunch supporter of the Boy Scout program, is an accomplished snow-skier, and mediocre golfer… Melissa Dawn Bennett-Bentley, free-lance writer, majored in Journalism at Weber State College. She wrote a weekly column, 1979 through 1989, in three Branson, Missouri area newspapers, called ‘Wishful Thinking;’ She was nominated for Statewide Columnist of the Year in 1981 and winner of regional poetry contests. She returned to Utah in 1995. When a spinal condition relegated her to a wheelchair 2 years ago, she found time to immerse herself writing full-time on 2 fi ction novels, one biography and a family history.. She and her husband of 14 years, Clemont Bentley, have nine children and seventeen grandchildren and live in Price, Utah.