Bill Beltz

William Earnest Beltz (April 27, 1912 – November 21, 1960) was an Alaskan Native politician and carpenter.

Born in Bear Creek on the Seward Peninsula,[1] Haycock, Alaska, Beltz was an Iñupiaq, the Inuit of Alaska. Beltz worked as a carpenter, elected President of the Alaska Council of Carpenters,[2] and lived in Unalakleet, Alaska. A Democrat, Beltz served as a member of the House in the Alaska Territorial Legislature in 1949. He then served in the Territorial Senate from 1951 until 1959, when Alaska became a state. Beltz served in the Alaska State Senate from 1959 until his death in 1960.[1] Beltz died at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska from a cancerous brain tumor.[3][4]

He was born to John Skyles Beltz (Bedford, Pennsylvania 1865 - 1934) who went to Alaska during the Yukon Gold Rush[5] in 1897[1] and Susie Goodwin Beltz (Selawik, Alaska, Northwest Arctic, Alaska 1879 - 1961). In 1953, Beltz married Arne Louise Bulkeley (New York 1917 - 2013) who was a U.S. Public Health Service village nurse in Unalakleet when they met; they had seven children.[1] Beltz's middle name "Earnest" is a family name from his father's side shared with other members of the extended family.[6]

In 1958 the first senate of the state of Alaska, unanimously elected Beltz president of the first senate of the state. Nome-Beltz Junior/Senior High School was named in his honor because of his efforts to provide education for rural residents.[2][7] A conference room in the Thomas B. Stewart Legislative Office Building was named for Beltz.[2]