Provided by Sharon A. Campbell, John Greve’s daughter.

John Paul Greve was born on April 9, 1898, in Irwin, Iowa. He was the second oldest son of eleven children born to German immigrant parents from Schweig-Holstein. Throughout the 1920s, John Greve worked in wholesale hardware for Marshall Wells in Duluth, Minnesota, where he enjoyed a comfortable social life. That all ended when the Depression hit and work dried up. For ten years, employment was spotty. He said, that he knew how it felt to be really hungry. That changed when he was drafted in 1942 at the age of 44. He was discharged later that same year for being over age; but, in the Army, he heard about employment opportunities in the Yukon Territory. He left a job in Minneapolis that paid. $.82 an hour and went to work in the Yukon for $1.50 an hour, nearly doubling his salary. He absolutely fell in love with the Yukon; and, from there, he fell in love with Alaska.

John Greve’s first job was in Whitehorse, Canada, where he worked for Marvin Tinker on a regular carpenter crew during the building of the Alcan Highway. This photograph collection dates from that period. When the contract ended, he applied to and was hired by Ladd Field in Fairbanks in May of 1944, and he was employed there until August 19, 1949. In 1946 he had married Nancy Lee Scott, the 41-year-old secretary to the Fairbanks High School principal. The following year, John was surprised to become a father at the age of 50. The asthmatic baby, Sharon, needed a more moderate climate and mom and daughter moved outside Alaska. John worked one more year before taking the same difficult step himself. In later years, he was never able to speak of Alaska without a break in his voice. He always assumed he would return, but the opportunity never came.