More than 100 people fill the lecture hall at Kenai Peninsula College on May 31. A framed photo of Gary Turner sits in the front of the room. At 19 years, Turner was the longest serving director in the college’s history when he retired in 2021.
He died in April at the age of 70.
Cheryl Siemers, the chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage and also once Turner’s successor as Kenai Peninsula College’s director, said “He did inspire excellence.”
She said Turner’s contributions make the college what it is today, and that influence stretches to the many students who passed through its halls.
“Gary invested in student’s lives because he believed in the impact of people in communities and in this state,” she said. “He believed in higher education and the opportunities that afforded each and every individual.”
David Wartinbee is a long time Kenai Peninsula College instructor. He said Turner is behind many of the college’s flagship programs. Turner co-founded the college’s program for sport fishing guides, the Kenai Peninsula Guide Academy. He brought the nursing program to Kenai Peninsula College. Then he did the same thing for the paramedic program.
“Gary was able to make that happen, and to put people together that could make it happen, and that’s a point of great amazement to me,” Wartinbee said.
Wartinbee says Turner also drove planning and fundraising for development and construction of the campus’ Career and Technical Education Center, and even the classroom where his memorial was held.
Thomas Dalrymple teaches accounting at the college. He remembers Turner as a planner. Perhaps too good of a planner, he said, with a nod to Siemers, who he’d mentored.
“Consummate professional that he was, he’s not only going to serve this place, he’s going to make sure it’s taken care of when he’s gone,” Dalrymple said. “He identifies this person. He mentors this person. This person stays for about 17 minutes and gets promoted to chancellor. Gary, dial it back a little.”
Turner was a champion for Kenai Peninsula College, Dalrymple said. He was a tireless advocate for students and for the people who taught them.
“I can only say that I’m grateful to have known him, to work with him, to learn with him, to love him,” he said. “And that will have to be enough. And someday it might be, but it isn’t just yet.”
Talis Colberg was the director of the university system’s Matanuska-Susitna College in Palmer for 13 years. He remembers Turner as a rival who endlessly championed Kenai Peninsula College’s successes.
Colberg says Turner was always quick to call out when Kenai Peninsula College was excelling amongst the many University of Alaska satellite campuses. He recalled a meeting of the university system's governing group, the Board of Regents, when he was roped into one of Turner's elaborate pranks.'
“The doors burst open and a paramedic team rushes in with a stretcher and places me on the stretcher with an oxygen mask,” Colberg said. “Hauls me out as Gary is solemnly saying ‘A man in his condition shouldn’t really be at these meetings, but we think our superior program will take care of him.’”
But for all the hijinks, Colberg says he'll miss Turner, a mentor and colleague who he described as a kind friend and fountain of knowledge.
Turner's life outside the University of Alaska System was equally vibrant. He served in the United States Air Force, where in 1982 he was named one of the service’s “Twelve Outstanding Airmen of the Year.” He was a public affairs manager for NASA. He spent more than a decade on the Alaska Legislature’s ethics committee.
He was a devout Christian. He loved to golf, fish and spend time with his family.
