Jeff Wraley, a Homer resident of 30 years, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound early this month. Wraley’s friends and family were hurt by the news, but that’s not how they choose to remember him. They remember an extremely generous man with a knack for crafts, archeology and a love for books.
“He read all the time. He read anything. He read everything. He loved books about history and science. He really would just latch onto something he was interested in and then go get every book on it,” said Karin Barbee.
Karin Barbee is Jeff Wraley’s youngest sister. She and Jeff grew up in Westerville Ohio with their parents and two sisters. Karin describes her brother as a big man who was extremely kind and generous. Plus she says her brother was kind of a genius.
“I don’t know if he had some kind of photographic memory, but it seemed like he could read a book and tell you everything about it,” said Barbee.
On top of that she says he had a natural artistic ability. She says Jeff could pick up raw material, like a piece of wood or stone, and shape it into just about anything.
“Like when I was really little he made me a bow and arrow. A real bow and arrow, not some plastic thing. He kind of whittled out the bow and arrow and took me out in the backyard, and we shot it. He did this constantly. He’d just make whatever he wanted. He’d just sit down and do it. He made me a Cracker Jack costume when I was maybe in third grade. It was a full-sized…it fit around my whole body. It was a huge Cracker Jack box that looked like Cracker Jacks. And my little face poked out of the middle of it,” said Barbee.
And, she says, Jeff loved the outdoors. He would take her into the woods constantly to hunt for arrowheads and other artifacts.
But, there was one other thing about Jeff that Karin says helped make his decision to leave Ohio for Alaska. He struggled with bipolar disorder.
“There’s a reason why he went to Alaska. I think he recognized that…he knew early on that we wasn’t going to be the kind of guy that gets married, has three kids and settles down. It really didn’t seem to be something that necessarily interested him,” said Barbee.
So, Jeff packed up and made the trek to Homer in 1986. He landed himself a job restoring biodiversity to the Aleutian and Shumagin Islands. Homer resident, Nina Faust, says her husband Ed Bailey is the one who hired Jeff.
“They would be trapping introduced foxes that were decimating the seabird colonies out there,” said Faust.
Nina says she and her husband would remain close friends with Jeff over the next 30 years. She says Jeff flourished in Alaska. He had a rare set of skills that served him well on their expeditions.
“When he was a kid he worked on a Native American Midden site in a dump very near to where he lived. And they taught him everything from beginning to end on how to dig an artifact, and how to catalog it, and how to preserve it, and how to describe it and how to draw it,” said Faust. “When he was out in the Aleutians…he would see things. We’d be walking along and he’d go, ‘artifact.’ And we’d go, ‘where.’”
Nina remembers one of his most memorable discoveries, a couple of ancient burial sites hidden in caves on one of the Islands of Four Mountains in the Aleutians.
In Homer, Nina says Jeff delivered used books to people who couldn’t easily access them. He worked on an electronics recycling project, of course he continued to read and sometimes he just spent time in coffee shops talking to people, especially the homeless.
“He said he discovered a lot of homeless people hanging out in cafés that didn’t have anyone to talk to. They’d just be sitting there. So he’d go in there and introduce himself and just start talking to them,” said Faust.
Nina says he stopped taking his medication sometime in the last year, because he didn’t like the side effects; but Nina won’t guess at whether or not that decision contributed to his death. And, she says, she won’t second guess him.
“It just seemed to me that he was pretty happy in many respects this last year and so it was a personal choice that he made and I’m not the one to tell him he can’t make it because it’s his life and his body,” said Faust.
Nina and Jeff’s sister, Karin, both agree that the years he spent in Alaska were among the happiest of Jeff’s life. Jeff’s family in Ohio and his Alaska family will hold separate memorials for him at some point in the future. Nina says Jeff asked that his ashes be spread in Kachemak Bay.
Editor's Note: Jeff Wraley’s sister Karin told KBBI her family was worried by her brother’s decision to go off his medication and they urged his doctors to convince him to continue taking it. But, she said, Jeff made up his mind. Karin said it’s important for people suffering from depression and bipolar disorder to listen to their doctors’ and loved ones’ advice, and to stay on their prescribed medication.
Jeff Wraley was 56. He is survived by his parents and three sisters.
Karin said Jeff’s effort to deliver used books to people around Homer will be taken over by the Rotary Club of Homer Downtown. Her family encourages people to donate to the project in memory of Jeff. Donations must be dropped off at the Downtown Rotary Club in Homer.
South Peninsula Behavioral Health Services offers 24/7 emergency care for people in crisis. Their address is 3665 Ben Walters Lane, Homer. Call 911 or 907-235-8101 to speak to a clinician.
