Keith Miller, Alaska’s third governor, dies at 94
He wasn't on the list.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Keith Miller, who served as Alaska’s third governor, has died. He was 94.
His step-daughter, Carol Slater, confirmed Miller died of pancreatic cancer while in hospice care Saturday in Anchorage.
Miller was serving as Alaska’s secretary of state when Gov. Wally Hickel was selected by President Richard Nixon to be the secretary of the U.S. Interior. Alaska didn’t have a lieutenant governor position then.
Alaska came into sudden wealth under Miller’s governorship when an oil lease sale on the North Slope fetched $900-million.
Miller served as governor for two years, losing to Gov. William Egan in 1970. Miller ran again in 1974, only to lose in the Republican primary.
Born March 1, 1925, in Seattle, he moved to Alaska in 1946 and homesteaded in the Talkeetna area.
In 1972, Miller was elected to a four-year term in the Alaska Senate. That term was cut short due to a challenge of the redistricting plan drawn up by the Alaska Supreme Court in 1972, centered on the apportionment of Senate districts in Anchorage. The court drew up a new plan in 1974. Rather than run for reelection in the new, Democratic-leaning district, Miller made one more campaign for governor in the Republican primary. He faced Hickel and Jay Hammond, who became the party’s nominee. In 1977, Governor Hammond named Miller to a seat on the Alaska Transportation Commission to serve as its chairman.
In 1970, seeking election to a full term, he saw his popularity diminish as his former running mate, Walter Hickel, delayed issuance of the permit to build the pipeline. He faced a primary election challenge from two-term Congressman Howard Wallace Pollock. He defeated Pollock, but faced William A. Egan, who was Alaska’s first governor, in the general election. Egan won the race, 52.4-46.1. Only after the 1973 oil crisis did Congress pass the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act that Miller sought.
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