ALASKA: They Like Mike

• Share

Among the fortune seekers who swarmed to the Yukon in the 1898 Gold Rush was one Michael Stepovich, out of the Balkans by way of Oregon. He struck it fairly rich. Unlike most sourdoughs, he sank his profits into land investments instead of boozy sprees. Other Alaskans thought he was crazy to pay hard-earned money for wasteland around Fairbanks, but as the mining camp grew into a bustling city, Stepovich grew rich, became known all over the territory as "Wise Mike."

Last week the U.S. Senate confirmed President Eisenhower's appointment of the late Wise Mike's son as Governor of Alaska. When he takes office within the next few weeks, Michael A. Stepovich will set three records among Alaska governors: youngest (38), first native Alaskan, and first Roman Catholic.

A graduate of Notre Dame Law School and the wartime U.S. Navy, Fairbanks-born Mike Stepovich won a seat in Alaska's House of Representatives at 32, moved on to the territorial Senate two years later. Among his political assets: an attractive, politics-minded wife, seven children, an easy, breezy manner. "Mike has never met a stranger in his life," says an admirer, marveling at Stepovich's talent for winning friends. Even Alaska Democrats like Republican Stepovich. "He's a good guy," says Democratic Delegate E. L. Bartlett. "I like Mike."