ATA's President Eller

 A Personal Profile by Janis Vandelaar

J. Clifton (Cliff) Eller, president of both the Alaska Telephone Association and his own Yukon Telephone Company, is a soft spoken, unassuring "country boy" who was born and raised in Robbinsville, North Carolina.

When I was asked to do a personal profile on Cliff, I wasn't sure what kind of a challenge it would be. I've known Cliff through working with the Association for the past four years, and was aware that he had a background filled with interesting experiences. But, because of his quiet demeanor, I thought it might take some time and encouragement to reveal his story.

Cliff is also a very busy man. Not only does he commute from his home in Palmer to his office in Anchorage (a distance of over 50 miles -one way), he also makes frequent trips to his telephone exchanges in the small "bush" communities of Tanana and Ruby. As president of ATA, and also a concerned member of a nowadays uncertain telephone industry, his time is even further taken up with planes to catch and meetings to attend.

So, with the challenge of extracting personal information from a man who does not like to "blow his own horn..." and the added dilemma of catching him before he's gone again, I knew I had my work cut out for me. All was not lost, however, for I knew I still had an "ace in the hole."

Many of you in the industry who have known Cliff, have also had the pleasure of knowing his wife, Paula. Paula is quite the opposite of Cliff. She could never be thought of as the '.'shy" type. She has an outgoing, bubbly personality that just doesn't quit. She had no problem relating Cliff's background history and experiences. In fact she and I spent several long hours together just going over their years together in Alaska. I did not want to steal any of Cliffs "thunder," but after talking with Paula, I realized that I could not write about Cliff without also writing about his wife and partner of over 25 years-. They have shared so much of their personal and working life together that, as Paula says, "1 would be nowhere without Cliff, and he would be nowhere without me.”

Cliff first got started in the communications field when he spent three years with the Army in occupied Ger- many, working as a radio operator and repairman. After his tour of duty, Cliff returned to his home in North Carolina where he worked stringing power lines along a dam site from the Tennessee Valley into North Carolina. From 1935 until 1955, Cliff worked as a trouble- shooter for AT&T in Charlotte, North Carolina. To give you an idea of how rural the community was that Cliff came from, he says, "Telephone lines weren't strung to the house that I grew up in until after 1960," Of course, the economy of such a rural area after the war was not the most promising, so Cliff decided to go West. In 1955; he went to work for Philco Radio in Madera, California.

After two years in California. he began to miss his rural surroundings. but he was still looking for away to get ahead. He had heard that money was good in Alaska, and what better place to get back to basics than in the "last frontier”.  When the opportunity presented itself in 1957, Cliff took a job with Federal Electric in Alaska. He received his training in Anchorage, then went to Tanana where he worked as a technician at the White Alice site at Bear Creek. He was later promoted to site supervisor , transferring to ,Northeast Cape on St . Lawrence Island in Kodiak, and then to Granite Mountain near Nome.

Cliff and Paula met in Tanana in the fall of 1958. She was working for the government as a nurse at the Alaska Native Hospital. Paula was not from the country , but grew up in Calgary, Alberta. She went to nursing school and graduated in Victoria, British Columbia. She had always loved the outdoors, and she also had heard of the good opportunities for nurses in Alaska. Her dream had been to travel to Europe one day, so she figured Alaska to be a good place to go and make some "fast bucks."  Besides Tanana, Paula also worked as a nurse in Juneau and Nome.

On December 31,1959, Cliff and Paula were married in Calgary. In June of 1960, they returned to Tanana where Cliff worked as site supervisor at Bear Creek, and Paula resumed her nursing duties at the Alaska Native Hospital. The E1Iers became a vital and respected part of the Tanana community. Because of clirrs communications background, and the fact that there was no telephone system in Tanana to connect them to the "outside" world, the E1Iers, with the encouragement of the community, made the decision to build a telephone system. This was not an easy task in a community as remote as Tanana that had no modern conveniences or equipment with which to do this type of work. With the help of local people, telephone poles were made by cutting down and "Iimbing" trees from around the area. The "poles" were set in hand- dug holes, and were put in place by a hoist that Cliff had constructed on the back of a flatbed truck. Compared to today's modern equipment and technology, the process with which Cliff had to work seems as if it were from the "stone age." But because of his hard work and ingenuity, the Tanana community was finally linked to the outside world with their own telephone system in May of 1961. Yukon Telephone Company started out with approximately 25 subscribers.

Growth was slow for the telephone system in Tanana, because many of the people living there also had family living in other outlying villages which had no phone system whatsoever. Within about 10 years, telephone systems were beginning to appear in more areas of the "bush." This is not to say that service was what you and I in the urban areas are accustomed to, either in quality or availability. With many of the communities having only one phone, and only one long-distance trunk available at a time, schedules had to be set for incoming and outgoing calls.

Making a phone call to a relative, friend or for business meant standing in line, sometimes for hours. If the party being called was not available or if there was a busy signal, back to the end of the line the caller would go to wait for another chance. Incoming calls were just as difficult. If the line was not busy, the caller had to take his chance as to who would answer the phone. If the per- son being called was not there, the caller would either have to wait for the person to be located, or call again later. With today' s technologies and state-of-the-art equipment, many of these communities now have good working systems. Still others have only the one community phone, or no phones at all.

After about ten years, Yukon Telephone's number of subscribers grew to approximately 100. The telephone company was not what .you would call a profit-making business, but it did serve the community with a needed service. The Ellers' , continued concern for affordable service over profit is demonstrated by the fact that they have not raised their rates since 1961.

The telephone business and raising four children was not the only way of life for the Ellers in Tanana. Among other things, Cliff was appointed the town 's magistrate and worked as a Fish & Game agent. In 1966, the Ellers took over the Tanana Power Company, which Paula has managed ever since that time.

From 1963 until 1970, they ran a coffee shop in Tanana called (what else) Eller's Cafe. It was the town meeting place where you could find friendly conversation and a good home-cooked meal. Paula says she made a dozen pies a day, several dozen cake donuts, cooked hamburgers, ran the ice cream and soda fountain, and after the general business hours from 4 -11, she made lunches for the local BLM workers. She told me they would land their helicopter in front of the cafe, then jump out and run in to pick up their lunches. During this time and until 1978, Paula also worked part time as a nurse, a substitute teacher, and a counselor for the high school students. I was, of course, amazed at all the different occupations each one handled, and when I asked where the training came in, her reply was frank. "In a community as small as Tanana," she said, "when you saw there was a job to be done, you did it. It was just a matter of learning along the way.

In 1979, the citizens of Ruby, a small village down-river from Tanana, approached the Ellers to install and maintain a telephone system for their town. After several months, the decision was made to go ahead with the project.

On December 6, 1980, Cliff and his friend George Richardson, a missionary from Ruby, took off from Nenana to Ruby which was a distance of about 160 miles. They were making the trip to deliver phone equipment to the exchange site and Christmas presents to Richardson's family. Cliff was flying on this date, as he had for the previous 20 years. The weather was crisp and clear as the two men took off in Cliff's Cessna 210 from the Nenana runway. Cliff recalls that the trip was uneventful until they reached Ruby. Although the instruments did not reflect the change, Cliff realized that they were losing altitude as they neared the Ruby airstrip. Minutes later, the engine lost power and the two prepared to make a crash landing. The plane suddenly hit a power line located between the town and the airstrip. The plane fell to the ground and slid approximately 50 feet. Cliff said he heard a "swoosh" as the plane caught fire. He reached over Richardson and opened the door for him, then Richardson reached in, pulling Cliff out of the burning plane. Cliff said they were in the plane no longer than 30 seconds after it came to rest.

A snow machine and truck arrived at the scene of the crash, and within minutes the two men were being transferred to a chartered aircraft bound for Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. Richardson stayed at the Fairbanks hospital until his release on December 10. Cliff was transported to Providence Burn Center in Anchorage where he under- went several painful weeks of treatments and skin grafts.

Despite the terrible pain and suffering that Cliff was going through, work went on at the Ruby exchange site. On December 24, the Ruby exchange was turned up when the first phone call was made by Cliff from his hospital bed to the personnel stationed at Ruby.

Though the scars of that terrible crash are still evident, Cliff's recovery has been truly miraculous. Besides the superior medical attention he received, his recovery has been greatly due to his courage and determination, along with the loving care and support of his family and friends. This type of accident would discourage many pilots from ever flying.  But not Cliff. He started flying his own plane again in March of 1981, just three months after his accident.

Cliff and Paula moved to Palmer with their two youngest sons to continue their junior high and high school educations in 1978. In May of 1981, they opened Yukon Telephone's Anchorage office at 1025 Orca Street. In March of 1983 they moved to a new building where their offices are now located at 406 West Fireweed Lane.

As you can see, the Ellers are true survivors, and as Paula laughingly puts it, "If it's been done, the Ellers have probably done it." Through their hard work and community spirit, they have touched the lives of many. Paula says, "I just wish I had started writing a book when we lived in Tanana." Maybe with some help and encouragement, she still might do just that. I, for one, hope she does!

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