John "Jack" Roderick (March 16, 1926 - October 19, 2020) was mayor of Anchorage. Originally from Seattle, Washington, Roderick was the son of a Presbyterian preacher who served in France during WWI. His parents divorced when he was 11 years of age, but this event did not affect his determination to succeed. In an interview, he stated that he was not born to work in a big city and wanted to be his own person. Early life and education Roderick attended Broadway High School, graduating in 1944. Shortly after graduating high school, he went to London for a summer course in economics at the Leeds University, where he played basketball, football, and was a member of the track team as a teenager. During his formative years, he continued to play football at Yale University. He was a patriotic citizen who volunteered to join the Navy Air Corps during WWII. He was described in the newspaper as a brilliant football player. Subsequently, he was transferred to Yale University where he obtained a bachelor's degree in political science in 1949. He turned down an $8000,00 a year career with the Chicago Bears because of lower back problems and a dislocated elbow that caused him neck problems. One event that marked his life dramatically during his college years was the crash of a DC-6 airplane that had been contracted by Yale University to bring students back to school after Christmas break. The airplane was overloaded, crashing at takeoff, killing 14 students. Roderick was one of three survivors, whose mother came to the scene of the accident, where she found him crying, dazed, and in a state of shock, while he was identifying his dead classmates. Adult life and higher education Following graduation, he moved to Michigan, then San Francisco, but shortly after, he went to Alaska looking to make money. He found a job at a cannery located on Afognak Island, near Kodiak Island; he made good money, allowing him to pay his college debt and also help pay his friends and classmates. He decided to remain in Alaska permanently by 1954. During one of his trips, going back home for Christmas, he met a woman from Tennessee named Martha Brady Martin. They fell in love and married "under the midnight sun" in 1955. Roderick furthered his education by attending the University of Washington, School of Law, graduating with a J.D. in 1959.