Long time Bristol Bay resident David Eric McClure, former director of the regional housing authority, died Wednesday Feb. 3 in Anchorage. He was 66.
Born Sept. 14, 1954 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and raised in the northern Laurel Valley part of Ligonier Valley, PA, David Eric McClure was a graduate of California University of Pennsylvania and the Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon University. He came to Alaska in 1979 as a VISTA Volunteer and worked for 14 years as the village administrator for the Kvichak River community of Levelock. McClure and the village council worked together to build capacity for federal housing project decisions, requiring locally built homes rather than prefabricated federal housing, and directing building lot decisions. There were objections but their efforts prevailed. McClure later became Executive Director of the Bristol Bay Housing Authority in Dillingham and served in that position for 21 years. Before his retirement in 2014, the Alaska Legislature, with encouragement from District 37 Representative Bryce Edgmon, enacted a proclamation thanking McClure for his more than 40 years of service to the state.
Reminiscing recently McClure said he was honored to have had the privilege of working with village leaders such as the late Joe Clark, William Tennyson and Boris Kosbruck, and current BBHA board chairman Luki Akelkok.
McClure also served as a board member of the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Vice President of the Bristol Bay Telephone Cooperative, Secretary-Treasurer of the Southwest Region School Board, and on the board of Nushagak Cooperatives (regional utility), the Association of Alaska Housing Authorities, Lake and Peninsula Borough Planning Commission, and Dillingham Parks and Recreation Board. He and BBHA were also instrumental in creating the Southwest Alaska Vocational and Education Center (SAVEC) in King Salmon, and McClure served as chairman of SAVEC’s board of directors.
A recipient in 2009 of a Rasmuson Foundation sabbatical, McClure’s personal interests included electronics, satellite and space shuttle imagery, and the geography of the Allegheny and Appalachian Mountain region. He is survived by his sisters and brothers in law Gloria and Albert Sciulli, of Pittsburgh, PA, Diane and Johnie Gross of Sutton, WV, and Carol McClure of Monroeville, PA. He was preceded in death by his parents, Mary and Wilbur McClure.
This obituary was submitted by Fritz Johnson.
Bristol Bay Obituaries is a place for people to remember family members and loved ones who have died. Email submissions and photos to obituary@kdlg.org.