Sean Ellis:
CLASS OF 1979
West High SchoolClass of 1979
Anchorage, AK
Save High SchoolClass of 1980
Anchorage, AK
King Career Center SchoolClass of 1979
Anchorage, AK
Sean's Story
It’s fun to look at the names here in CM and recall people and events that I haven’t remembered for a long time. My years at West Anchorage High School created fond memories, helped to shape my life and provided the opportunity to make friends that remain dear to me to this day. With high school behind my education really began. My HS diploma was barely 2 weeks old when I entered the Airframe and Powerplant program at UAA. In the 2 year program I earned an A&P certificate and went to work as a Helicopter Technician for Trans Alaska Helicopters on Merrill Field in Anchorage in 1982. Working in the helicopter business was an exciting way to experience Alaska as well as other parts of the world. In 1983 I married my high school sweetheart Glenda Ramos (West High class of 81) She was a friend of my sister’s and we hit it off right away. That was 1976 and have been together every since! Without her love and support I would have nothing. Thanks Sis!
I always wanted to be a pilot and growing up in Alaska where aviation is so big it seemed to be a natural thing to do. Even during high school I had worked for an air taxi at Lake Hood as a dock boy during the summers and loved working around the airplanes and pilots. In the summer of 1977 I took flying lessons from Hidei Russe and soloed at Anchorage International Airport. I earned a private pilots license in 1978. Some of my first passengers were classmates from West like Scott Haylor, John Ryan and Kevin Jacobsen. By the end of 1983 Glenda and I had a beautiful new daughter and the reality of being a new father inspired me to keep working toward a flying career. 1985 brought new opportunities. I bought a Cessna 152 that had been wrecked on a mountain glacier and recovered it with a helicopter. We rebuilt the Cessna and I began moonlighting as a flight instructor. 2 of my first students were classmates, Don Snell, famed for burnouts in student parking lot in front of the smoking area (yep it’s hard believe we had a smoking area) and Jason Marsh. By 1987 I had put a couple thousand hours in my log book and added a second daughter to our family. We bought a small house in Eagle River and I continued to work as a helicopter mechanic and flight instructor. The small flight operations had grown to 2 aircraft and 3 other part time instructors and was taking up a lot of my time. As our daughters grew it was apparent that we didn’t want to have the girls in day care while both parents worked so Glenda started watching a couple of the neighbors children in our home. Those were some busy days but we look back on them with fond memories. I had floated my resume out to several of the air carriers around the st...Expand for more
ate and In the spring of 1988 I got a call from Northern Air Cargo. NAC was owned by the Sholton Family and Adam Sholton was also a West High class of 79 alumni. I was hired initially as a flight engineer but was moved to the copilots seat while still in ground school. I flew the grand old Douglas DC-6 freighter all across Alaska and sometimes ventured into the lower 48 on charters. It was a wonderful place to work and I enjoyed it very much. It also paired me with some of the best pilots in the world in my opinion and I learned every thing I could from them. The flying job at NAC also underscored the reality that I couldn’t really move forward with my career without a degree so in 1991 I went back to UAA and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in science technology. I had no sooner finished at UAA when I got a call from Mark Air who was expanding across the country. I was hired as a first officer and based in Seattle. For almost 2 years I flew the Boeing 737 as a first officer and commuted to Seattle. I flew routes all across the US and Alaska and got to see much of the US for the first time. MarkAir was a fun place to work because it was always teetering on the ragged edge of either greatness of bankruptcy. Many of my West High classmates were also employed by MarkAir including my brother Wade and friend Dana Hollenbeck. Unfortunately for MarkAir they spiraled into financial distress beginning in 1995 and finally folded in 1996. I was furloughed in March 1995 but on my last flight I ran into a pilot for Alaska Airlines in Seattle who told me they were going to hire pilots soon. He also told me that they would all be Anchorage based which would be perfect for me since I lived there already. I returned from my flight to the east coast and went straight to Alaska’s corporate office and filled out an application. Within a week I was sitting in ground school as a brand new first officer on the Boeing 737-200. I checked out as a Captain in 2000 and still fly for Alaska Airlines based in Anchorage. I’m getting close to retirement now. Glenda and are coming up on 39 years of marriage and look forward to the next chapter of our lives. Our daughters are grown and married and we have 5 grandkids from 15 years to 5 months old. (3 boys 2 girls) Grandpa is a pretty good job once you get past the title 😄 We spend our time together at home in Eagle River and summers in Soldotna at our place on the Kenai River. We would like to snowbird to Hawaii or Arizona in the winter but the grandkids keep up close for now. We don’t ever see ourselves relinquishing our status as Alaskans. I’d love to hear from my classmates and hear what you all have been up to!
Cheers!
Sean Ellis
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