00 Enrolled SJR 23                                                                                                         
01 Expressing the support of the Alaska State Legislature for naming the mountain between                                  
02 Cedar Ridge and Hope Peak south of Anchorage after Gail Phillips.                                                       
03                                          _______________                                                                
04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                             
05      WHEREAS Gail Phillips was born in Juneau, spent her early years in a mining camp                                   
06 at Council, graduated from Nome High School, and went on to receive a bachelor's degree                                 
07 from the University of Alaska Fairbanks; and                                                                            
08      WHEREAS, following her education, Gail Phillips worked for over a decade in state                                  
09 aviation, taught high school business courses in Nome, owned and operated a store in Homer                              
10 and a family placer mine on the Seward Peninsula, became secretary of the board of the newly                            
11 formed Iditarod Trail Committee, and served the Iditarod as an unpaid race coordinator for                              
12 years; and                                                                                                              
13      WHEREAS Gail Phillips served as the head of the Homer Chamber of Commerce, on                                      
14 the Homer City Council, on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, and as legislative                                     
15 committee chair of the Alaska Municipal League before being elected to the Alaska House of                              
16 Representatives; and                                                                                                    
17      WHEREAS, in the Alaska House of Representatives, Gail Phillips was instrumental                                    
01 in forming a bipartisan coalition, was selected in her second term of office as House Majority                          
02 Leader, and was then elected as Speaker of the House for two consecutive terms; and                                     
03      WHEREAS, following her retirement from the Alaska House of Representatives, Gail                                   
04 Phillips served for several years as executive director of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee                           
05 Council, engaged in countless forms of public service, spent her free time mentoring potential                          
06 office seekers and working for responsible natural resource development, and at the time of                             
07 her death was serving on the boards of the Iditarod Trail Race Foundation and the Alaska                                
08 Aviation Museum; and                                                                                                    
09      WHEREAS the mountain between Cedar Ridge and Hope Peak south of Anchorage                                          
10 is without a name; is located north of the community of Hope, an area rich in Alaska history                            
11 and natural resources, which were two of Gail Phillips's lifelong passions; is in the Kenai                             
12 Peninsula Borough, an area Gail Phillips served for many years; and its stately silhouette is                           
13 clearly visible from Gail Phillips's family home;                                                                       
14      BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature recognizes that Gail Phillips                                     
15 made significant contributions to the state and that her life of public service merits naming the                       
16 mountain between Cedar Ridge and Hope Peak south of Anchorage as Gail Phillips Peak.                                    
17      COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Alaska Historical Commission; the                                   
18 Domestic Names Committee, United States Board on Geographic Names; and the Honorable                                    
19 Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the U.S. Representative                               
20 for Alaska, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.