Thursday (12-14-23) marked the end of an era in Sitka. Dr. Tom Jacobsen, who’s been practicing dentistry for over five decades, will be hanging up his picks and retractors. But you can forget the La-Z-Boy; this record-holding masters swimmer and long-distance hiker is hitting the trail.
Dentistry in Southeast Alaska nowadays looks a lot like dentistry anywhere else. Fifty years ago, that was not the case.
“I started off here at the Indian Health Service hospital before SEARHC,” said Jacobsen, “and I was the itinerant dental officer. So myself and my assistant and the pilot, we flew around to quite a few of the villages in Southeast Alaska with our dental laboratory miniaturized in the back of a beaver floatplane. And I did that for three years. And then came over to town here, and have been practicing in the same spot ever since.”
Tom Jacobsen practically had just walked off the stage with his diploma from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry when he was hired by the IHS and moved to Alaska. His clinic overlooks Swan Lake in downtown Sitka, the speakers in the waiting and exam rooms play KCAW all day – more on this in a moment. It’s got a very chill vibe because Dr. J – as he is widely known – is chill.
Chances are he swam 2,000 yards this morning, before the rest of Sitka was even awake. It’s a habit he’s had for decades.
“My daughter’s decided to join the swim team,” he said, “and that was going to be their sport. So of course, I had to get up early and take them to the pool. And I swam in high school, not very well, I might add. But I thought, well, swimming isn’t bad. So I started swimming. Then I thought, well, I’m up early anyway, might as well. And I continue that today. I just went for a swim this morning.”
Jacobsen has been a record holder in the backstroke in his age division in Alaska’s Masters Swimming. He’s a beast in the other strokes, too, except the butterfly. When he joins his masters teammates in the pool he sometimes refers to his lane as “a no-fly zone.”
Jacobsen also covers a lot of territory on dry land. Tall, trim, and long-legged, occasionally he can be seen walking around town with a loaded backpack. It’s a sign that he is in training for a hike that is likely something more than a day trip, or a weekend outing.
Jacobsen prefers to go long, and to go high.
“The John Muir Trail was like 240 miles from Yosemite to Whitney,” he said, recounting one of his favorite hikes. “And it goes across quite a few divides – passes. And at the very end, it comes across from the western side of the Sierras and across Mt. Whitney and down to the eastern side of the Sierras. So you’re crossing a lot of divides when you’re on this trail.”
So about KCAW on the speakers at his dental clinic: It wasn’t long after his move to Alaska that Jacobsen first became aware of community radio. Sitka had – and still has – an excellent commercial station, but Jacobsen got to know a group of people who wanted something really local, and community radio stations were beginning to crop up around Alaska.
The Federal Communications Commission wanted potential licensees to raise at least $300,000, which was a small fortune in 1978. Without cash, the alternative was to rally community support. So Jacobsen and his like-minded community radio advocates rallied.
“And for four years, we were running bake sales, we were having square dances over at the old BOQ (Bachelor Officers Quarters) and had concerts here – all to raise money to show community support. And we couldn’t raise a third of a million dollars, which is what it took to put in this fancy equipment I see here in this room. But if we showed community support, then the FCC could be convinced to give us our operating license to use the public airwaves. So that’s how it (KCAW) got started.”
But a license is not a radio station. That would still take money. Jacobsen says he drew the short straw to travel to Anchorage and make the case for KCAW before the Alaska Public Broadcasting Commission.
“And unfortunately, I was the one somehow picked to stand up in front of this big room and explain why we needed $300,000. I’m not a good public speaker and really, still am not.”
The money arrived, and almost 42 years later, KCAW is still going strong.
Dr. J will take some time to fully separate from his dental practice, which is now in the hands of his partner, David Pearson. In the meantime, he’ll be officiating high school swim meets, as always, and living in a way that is – and should be – the envy of all of us. Cory Kelly Proctor, a hygienist at Sitka Dental for twenty years, is just saying what we’re all thinking.
‘I’ve always imagined you are sort of a Benjamin Button,” she said. “So I expect you’re going to be racing up mountains and swimming rivers, just please make sure you take lots of pictures so we can all follow along the way.
Tom Jacobsen’s last official day on the job was Thursday, December 14. He’ll be following up with a few patients over the next few months (kids in braces), before he’s fully retired.
Cindy Edwards contributed to this story.
