Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Longtime resident Bill Armour died of natural causes at son Mike Armour’s home here on March 28.

William Armour was born Aug. 21, 1924 in National City, Calif. and enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 17 in nearby San Diego. He came to Alaska after receiving a medical discharge from the Marine Corps in 1943.

A tank commander in the Philippines, Armour was pinned under his tank while avoiding an accident, crushing his skull, breaking his arm, and costing him an eye and an ear. Military doctors didn’t think Armour had long to live and told him to go do whatever he wanted.

He booked passage on a steamer and went to Point Baker, a tiny fishing village on Prince of Wales Island, where he worked as a hand-troller and trapper.

After the birth of a daughter, Armour moved to Juneau, where he worked as a Singer sewing machine repairman. He also worked there at a gun shop and at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Mike Armour recalled traveling with his father as he worked as a seasonal field worker. “We spent our summers in places like Chignik, Yakutat, Popoff Island, and on Canon Island up the Taku River,” he said.

Bill Armour went to work for Bob Becker at Becker’s cable TV business and in 1969 moved to Haines with Mike to extend cable service here. In 1975, Armour and his son started gillnetting together. Bill Armour retired 20 years later to pursue his lifelong passions of hunting and gunsmithing.

Henry Chatoney hunted with Armour for years. “He was a bear guide, he built all his own gunstocks, and he liked to shoot bows and arrows. He made his own arrows and all that kind of stuff, too. Bill was kind of cantankerous, but a fun guy to be around and go hunting and fishing with.”

Mike Armour said his father taught him how to shoot a bow when he was six years old, and that he liked nothing more than hanging out with Henry, working on guns or planning and executing hunts. “They would wake up in the morning, drink their coffee and say,  ‘What gun can we build today?’ or ‘Let’s go bear hunting or buffalo hunting.’ My father basically spent his whole life outdoors doing something,” Armour said. “He was the toughest guy in the world.”

The last three years caring for his father, who had mellowed with age, was especially rewarding, Mike said. “It was kind of wonderful, really. He was my friend and companion throughout my life, and will be missed every day.”

Armour said his father’s ashes would be scattered at sea this summer in a private family ceremony

Bill Armour is survived by ex-wife Agnes Armour of Olympia, Wash., daughter Kathy Jones of Auburn, Wash., and by sons Mike Armour of Haines and and Brian Armour of Carlsbad, Calif.