Ken Hinchey

{{Short description|American entrepreneur and politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Ken Hinchey | birth_date = September 9, 1912 | death_date = April 21, 1994 (age 81) | birth_place = Tacoma, Washington, U.S. | death_place = Anchorage, Alaska, U.S. | office = Mayor of Anchorage | term_start = April 8, 1955 | term_end = April 8, 1956 | predecessor = Maynard L. Taylor, Jr. | successor = Anton Anderson }}

'''Ken Hinchey''' (September 9, 1912 – April 21, 1994) was an American entrepreneur and politician who served one term as Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska from 1955 to 1956.

==Early life== Ken Hinchey was born September 9, 1912, in Fern Hill, Tacoma, Washington.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=1994-05-05 |title=Ken Hinchey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/wallowa-county-chieftain-ken-hinchey/170675238/ |access-date=2025-04-19 |work=Wallowa County Chieftain |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He attended school in Seattle,<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Fattig |first=Paul |date=1985-04-13 |title=Entrepreneur Hinchey calls Anchorage home |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-times-entrepreneur-hinchey-cal/170674347/ |access-date=2025-04-19 |work=Anchorage Times |pages=39 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and moved to Alaska in 1937.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Todd |first=Flip |date=1974-05-22 |title=Hinchey sells Alaska Aggregate to Alaska Brick for $3 million |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-times-hinchey-sells-alaska-agg/170673389/ |access-date=2025-04-19 |work=Anchorage Times |pages=41 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

== Career == Shortly after his arrival in Alaska, Hinchey began to sell sand and gravel in Government Hill and ice from Spenard Lake; he later founded the Ken Hinchey Co. construction company. In 1952, the company supplied gravel to the Palmer Construction Company while it was creating the six and a half mile tunnel for the Eklutna Power Plant.<ref name=":2" /> Hinchey had founded the Alaska Aggregate Corporation, also known as Alagco, in 1948.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />

Hinchey started a number of businesses in Alaska, including Northern Transfer, the Black and White Restaurant, Idealaska Cement, and Pacific Western Lines,<ref name=":0" /> and "salmon airlift service" for commercial fishermen in the 1970s.<ref name=":1" /> He also mined gold in Hope, invented machines,<ref name=":1" /> and transported oil from Valdez to Fairbanks for the military during World War II. He was an avid bush pilot.

== Political career == Hinchey was elected to a single term mayor of Anchorage in 1955.<ref name=":1" /> During his seven months in office,<ref name=":1" /> he advocated statehood for the Territory of Alaska and building a dam on the Cook Inlet causeway.{{Cn|date=April 2025}} He resigned in 1956 after he was prohibited by the city council from using his businesses to supply municipal projects.<ref name=":1" />

He briefly ran for governor of Alaska in 1969.<ref name=":2" /> He ran for mayor again in 1973.<ref name=":1" /> In 1974, he sold Alagco to the Alaska Brick Company.<ref name=":2" />

== Personal life == In 1933, he married Nadine Graves, and the couple moved to Anchorage, Alaska in 1937. He died April 21, 1994, at the age of 81. At the time of his death, he had three children.<ref name=":0" />

== References == {{Reflist}} * {{Citation | title=Obituaries | newspaper=Anchorage Daily News | pages=D4 | date=May 11, 1994}} * [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1956/07/14/1956_07_14_015_TNY_CARDS_000253776 "Alaskan Mayor" (abstract) in The New Yorker, 1956]

== Bibliography == * Hinchey, Ken ''Alaskan "Imagineer"'', 1994

{{s-start}} {{succession box | before=Maynard L. Taylor Jr. | title=Mayor of Anchorage | years=1955{{spaced ndash}}1956 | after=Anton Anderson }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinchey, Ken}} Category:1912 births Category:1994 deaths Category:20th-century mayors of places in Alaska Category:Alaska Republicans Category:American businesspeople in construction Category:Aviators from Alaska Category:Bush pilots Category:Mayors of Anchorage, Alaska Category:Politicians from Tacoma, Washington Category:20th-century American businesspeople