Alaska oil pioneer Bill Bishop dies in Anchorage

The Associated Press

Bill Bishop, a geologist credited with discovering Alaska’s first major commercial oil field, died Feb. 11 of complications from pneumonia. He was 79.

Bishop was working for ARCO when the Swanson River oil field came in on the Kenai Peninsula in July of 1957.

The boots he wore on the day of the discovery have been bronzed and are on display at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art.

While the discovery of the field didn’t lead to an immediate oil rush, it prompted a leasing boom and helped bolster arguments that the then-territory could support itself as a state.

“It was as important as Prudhoe Bay,” said Jack Roderick, a former Anchorage Borough mayor and author of “Crude Dreams,” a history of oil development in Alaska.

A decade later, geologists discovered Prudhoe Bay, cementing the state’s role as a national supplier of crude.

While Bishop also worked on Prudhoe Bay and other developments, it was the discovery at Swanson River that remained linked with his name. The field contained more than a quarter-billion barrels of oil, a good find even by today’s standards.

Keven Kleweno, Bishop’s son-in-law, said Bishop was always modest about his accomplishments.

“He liked to tell his grandchildren, and he kind of puffed up when they told him about seeing his boots down at the museum, but he was never one to toot his own horn,” he told the Anchorage Daily News.

In later years, Bishop served on several industry boards and associations and was one of the first presidents of the state Chamber of Commerce.

He also worked for the Bristol Bay Native Association as a manager of subsurface resources and in his spare time honed his gardening skills.

Bishop was born in Dalhart, Texas, on May 13, 1919. He fought during World War II with the U.S. Marine Corps, earning the Bronze Star for tours in Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima, his daughter, Dawn Bishop-Kleweno, said. He went to school in California at UCLA, where he got a master’s degree in geology before going to work for Atlantic Richfield.

Although he started work in California, he was sent all over the United States and to Egypt and Italy. He came to Alaska in 1955 and worked for ARCO until 1968.

In addition to Dawn Bishop-Kleweno and Keven Kleweno, Bishop is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Kathy and Jim Fredrickson of Seward and four grandchildren.