Ted Herlinger

Ted Herlinger, 73, died on March 21, 2015, of complications of COPD and heart disease at Providence Alaska Medical Center Emergency Room. He was born on June 26, 1941, in Prineville, Ore. His parents, Royden and Hazel (Gillett) Herlinger, are no longer living, but he is survived by his sister Jan Herlinger of Melbourne, Australia; his wife, Judith Moore; his stepchildren, Dawson Moore of Valdez, Alaska, and Neith Flood of London, England; and many friends and fellow artists both in Anchorage and elsewhere in Alaska and in England. Ted graduated from high school in Redmond, Ore., in 1959, and attended his 50th class reunion in 2009. In between, he served in the U.S. Army in Europe, completed a bachelor's degree in Art at Sacramento State in 1974, and then went to Ketchikan, Alaska, where he became both a commercial fisherman and a bar bouncer, with stints in Juneau and Nome, Alaska, as a chef. He also spent nearly a year in a remote cabin on Gravina Island, accessible only by a float plane which picked him up every few weeks to collect staples from Ketchikan. In 1983, he moved from Nome to Anchorage with the goal of earning an MFA from UAA, which he did in 1989, after meeting and marrying an English professor, Judith Moore. With her, he traveled in England, France and the Netherlands and established his studio in Anchorage, producing much multi-media work, which he exhibited in Anchorage and in London. His last show, close-up photographic transparencies of birchbark, was in Anchorage's International Gallery of Contemporary Art at the time of his death. Ted was both a warm-hearted and passionate man. He sometimes intimidated people, but in the end was never indifferent or cruel to them. He was a member of Central Lutheran Church and a strong supporter of the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Beans Cafe and the Brother Francis Shelter. Remembering his own military service, he had a special respect for veterans, and when he was commissioned to design the donor wall for the Shelter, he enjoyed working with volunteers from the Anchorage Domiciliary. This experience led, in turn, to relationships with deployed soldiers to whom he sent care packages and letters. Although his health had failed badly in the last few months, he never lost his enthusiasm for new knowledge and new projects. In respect to his firmly and repeatedly expressed wishes, no public service is planned, but he will be long and deeply missed. Gifts to the favorite institutions listed here would be a memorial he would be pleased by. "The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord." Psalm 33:5