Louis Alfred Bonnett, passed away peacefully in his sleep on July 25, 2022. He had 94 years of adventures with 70 years of marriage to his best friend and wife, Edith Margaret, who is still residing at the Juneau Pioneers Home where they have shared a "suite" for the past couple of years. Lou, Louie, or Louis (as he went by all those names), was born in Saint Ann's Hospital in Territorial Juneau, Alaska in June 20, 1928 to Alfred and Madeline Bonnett. He spent many years living in Thane in the family miner house that used to be on the hill above where the Thane Ore house used to be (since his dad worked as an electrician in the AJ mine, they got one of the family issued miner houses). Lou and his siblings had the biggest sand box in the world as well as getting paid to find all the golf balls for the golf players! Great place to grow up with the beach and the woods to play in. The family then moved to Douglas in the house that is still standing today where he and his siblings attended Mount Jumbo School, also known as the Douglas High School. There Lou became an outstanding Basketball player where the small school actually beat the much bigger Juneau High School the one year he was basketball captain. Teams from Juneau and Douglas had some pretty intense games back then, just like there are some now with TMHS and JDHS! Though reading the old newspaper stories, it sounds like the crowds were pretty rough! Lou went on to play basketball in the Gold Medal Tournaments after he graduated from Douglas High School and was awarded into the Gold Medal Hall of Fame in 1970. He was known for his shot that went up from behind his head that was hard to block and his sportsmanship and fair playing. Lou crewed on commercial fishing boats and tugboats and traveled up and down the west coast until he joined the Alaska National Guard and helped to build the ALCAN highway starting from Haines. Lou loved building models and was a great carpenter and at one time, he and Ralph Kibby SR built a boat from scratch and "flew" all over the channel, from the sounds of it, it had quite the motor! Lou was known for his work ethic and never missed a day of work. However, there is an infamous story of when he drove a bus for Ralph, that after one rough long basketball night, he was exhausted and yet he still got up and drove the bus in the early winter morning for the Douglas folks getting to work…He drove to all the right spots and then drove the bus back to the garage and then went back to bed…, however, he forgot to stop and pick them all up! In December 27, 1952, Lou and Edie were married in the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Territorial Juneau, Alaska where the still present Christmas decorations were up making it the easiest and most beautiful decorated church for a wedding. In 1962, they brought home a cute little daughter named Karen. They moved out to the Airport Acres where Lou, Bill Boehl, and Jim Wellington built a house to be closer to the Airport where Lou was now part owner of Standard Airport Products Inc. Lou felt that the airport area needed a fire station and the first meeting for getting the Glacier Fire Department was held in his garage. Those days were filled with work at the airport, basketball games, fire drills and being a husband and father and being generous with helping others and his friends. Talking about that work ethic…. Lou broke his ankle during a basketball game but kept playing on it! When he finally got it looked at and had a cast put on, he kept working at the airport where he would be climbing UP on the wings of the jets to fuel them (that's how they fueled them back then) during the winter with a bag over the cast to keep it dry, though that made his one foot a little slippery! In 1964, a good-looking son was added to the family and a year later the whole family, complete with a cat named Twinkle, moved out to the beach house at 17 mile. Life started out rather exciting with the squirrel that was loose in the house when first moved in, oh and the family of otters that lived under the pantry until he was able to finally close up the crawl space after the little otters were grown up! That was one stinky summer! There were 179 stairs down to the beach house but there were still lots of beach parties, boating and camping and the whole family was in great shape! Lou had a couple of times spent at St. Ann's hospital for his back though, oh and that foot kept bothering him. During this time, Lou continued to bring in new fuel trucks to the Airport with one story of how they brought in one from Seattle on the dirt ALCAN highway. The custom agent wasn't going to let Lou bring in the fuel truck filled with Jet fuel into Canada. So, Lou told him that he would drive back a ways and just let it all drain out in the ditch. Well, the agent didn't call Lou's bluff and decided that he could tape off the gas cap and go on. (Agent didn't know there was another cap on the truck either!) Edie was driving the station wagon behind him and they proceed thru the ALCAN highway. During those days the road was not paved and filled with potholes and no railings and lots of steep up and down inclines. There was one close call where the truck was not able to slow down and was sliding sideways due to the loose gravel and Edie had to watch her husband stand on the side step while hanging out the door with one hand and the other hand on the steering wheel in case the truck went over the side of the steep downhill and he would need to jump clear! Fortunately, they safely made it into Haines, bringing that fuel truck on the M/V Chilkat to Juneau where it is still in use at the airport today. Being a quick thinker, not much got past Lou and he was not one to bad mouth anyone and would give a fellow the opportunity to explain. One instance was where an employee was stealing the gas from the pump at the underground tank. Lou told the employee that the tank must have a leak in it and that he needed the employee to dig it up with the shovel and find the leak. It was a HUGE tank… after a while of a little digging, the employee came back to Lou and confessed taking the gas. Went on to become a loyal employee who never took gas again. Lou was a great marksman and kept the family stocked with moose and deer meat. He and his buddies built a couple of cabins during the territorial days where they hunted and brought families for camping and boating fun and especially with a favorite cabin in Seymour Canal. Times spent at Taku lodge and up the Talkeen river in little wooden cabin cruisers while sitting on gas barrels so they would have enough fuel to get back home, these guys figured ways to get around! Lou was not afraid to try something new either, and at 50 years old, learned how to fly a plane! Trips with flying around Southeast Alaska in first a big tire two-seater, landing on beaches, to finally getting a two-seater float plane landing on lakes, rivers and oceans. Lou had a competition with his daughter on getting the first, biggest and most cutthroat trout and one trip almost was their last when the two of them jumped out of the float plane at the creek on north end of Hasselberg lake and started casting away, not noticing the wind had picked up and the plane was starting to float away! Karen was able to swim out to the plane though she had to row it back sitting on the pontoon as she was too cold to get up in the pit to start the engine and bring it back to the beach. Lou was not able to swim as he had no fat on him and would sink, so he had to stay on the beach… and kept on casting away! He got the big cutthroat for that day! Besides the float plane, Lou didn't let his not swimming stop him as he had skiffs and nice fiberglass boats from the "Cold Duck" to the "Now and Then" where he and Edie and family traveled all over Southeast Alaska during times off from work and when he retired. There was also the camper where the family spent time up north driving the ALCAN. Once a year, Lou would make sure to take time for the family to travel. As the company grew, the trips became less but more during the winter when the business was slower. Lou would work the holidays so that his employees would be able to spend Christmas day with their families and Lou would then spend Christmas eve with his own family. Many Christmas and new year's evenings would find him and his family in Douglas celebrating with friends and other family members. Lou retired from Standard Airport after 35 years and he and Edie bought a fifth wheel. They became Snowbirds and enjoyed having a sunny winter instead of a snowy one. The residents of the Pt Stephens Spur Road (the beach house the family moved to at Tee Harbor from 17 mile) missed Lou being around to snowplow the road as Lou was an early riser to work and would be the first to leave the end of the street where he lived and he would snowplow the entire street up to the main highway. After a few years traveling around, Lou and Edie ended up selling the fifth wheel when they found and bought a little house in Yuma, Arizona where they spent many winters with Lou enjoying building and flying model airplanes and traveling to Mexico and visiting with many other snowbirds, many that are dear friends with some pretty hilarious tales that should be told on here! They ended up selling the Tee Harbor house and bought a condominium in Westridge so they didn't have to worry about the beach house and they could just lock up and go traveling in their boat or flying south. When Lou decided he had enough of driving down south in that bleep traffic, they sold the Yuma house and the condo and moved out to Meander Way on the river where Lou got a chuckle out of asking the river rafters if they caught any fish today?! When Edie caught Lou shoveling the snow off the roof when he was 89years old, it was decided that the house was getting too much and maybe they needed to move to the Juneau Pioneer Home. Probably the neighbors were wondering a little with Edie telling Lou that she would kill him if he didn't get off that roof RIGHT NOW! One thing that has never been mentioned and this was only found out just recently from someone who knew… When the air shows or the US Thunderbirds or Canadian Snowbirds came to town, Lou gave them fuel for what it cost HIM to buy. He never made a dime from the military planes as he was proud to do his part to help. Lou is survived by his wife of 70 years and best friend, Edie. His daughter Karen Bonnett Petersen (Mark), and son Craig Bonnett (Dawn). Grandchildren, Rachelle Bonnett, Deana Elliott, Marie Petersen (Aaron), and Kayla Bonnett. Sister Betty Kendler Hunt, brother George Bonnett. Nieces, Sandy Spickler (Scott), Michelle Bonnet Hale (Jim), Paula Wellington Money (Eric), Dawn Wellington, and nephews JP Wellington (Lucy), Mike Wellington (Jane), Ron Baxter (Pam) and many great nieces and great nephews. Lou was preceded in death by his parents Alfred and Madeline Bonnett, in-laws Jim Wellington (Celia), brother Gil Bonnett, and brother Herb Bonnett and brother-in-law James Patrick Wellington (Dottie), sister-in-law Helen Bonnett, and niece Debbie Baxter and nephew Doug Wellington. In leu of a service, Lou wanted a big party instead. A celebration of life for Louis Bonnett will be held at the Juneau Yacht Club on Saturday, August 20th from 2pm to 6pm. Please bring pictures and stories to share.

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