UAA seeks nominees for 2018–2019 honorary degree awards

On Sunday, Dec. 17, at the fall 2017 UAA Commencement ceremony, the late retired Superior Court Judge Roy Madsen of Kodiak was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. This award is bestowed to an individual who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the university, to the state of Alaska, or to the individuals' discipline or profession.

The university recognized Judge Madsen for his years of service in Alaska's legal system, the Alaska Superior Court and on the UA Board of Regents. Madsen's leadership was instrumental in establishing what is now Kodiak College, a UAA campus. He passed away on Dec. 26, 2017, at the age of 94.

Nominations for the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 honorary degree awards are currently being accepted. The deadline for nominations is Jan. 31, 2018. Learn more about how to nominate someone here.

Roy Madsen Biography

Born in the village of Kanatak on the Alaska Peninsula, Roy Madsen was raised by his father Charles, a Danish fur trader, and his mother Mary Metrokin Madsen, of Sugpiaq-Alutiiq-Russian heritage.

After completing Kodiak High School in 1941, Anthony Dimond, Alaska's congressional delegate, appointed Madsen to the U.S. Naval Academy.  Not accepted due to color blindness, Madsen enrolled in ROTC at Oregon State College (now University) and enlisted in the U.S. Navy his sophomore year. He served as navigator and forward gunner in Papua, Dutch New Guinea and the Philippine Islands, earning six campaign medals and two battle stars.

After the war, Madsen fished and guided in Kodiak before returning to college. He received his law degree in 1953 from Northwestern College of Law, today part of Lewis and Clark College. He became an assistant district attorney for Clackamas County, but returned to start private law in Kodiak in 1961.

Madsen served as city and borough attorney while Kodiak rebuilt from the 1964 earthquake. He co-founded the Kodiak Area Native Association and was first chair of the advisory board for Kodiak Community College (now a UAA campus), where he also taught business law.

In the 1970s, Madsen helped lobby for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in Washington, D.C. and advised village leaders across Kodiak of their new corporation responsibilities. Through governor appointments, Madsen served the Alaska State Human Rights Commission, the UA Board of Regents (its first Alaska Native representative) and the Alaska Superior Court Trial Bench, where he encouraged bringing judicial services to rural communities.

Madsen retired in 1990 but remained committed to diversity and equal representation in the judiciary through Alaska's Color of Justice program and an appointment to the Alaska Supreme Court's Committee on Fairness and Access. Today, Madsen remains the only Alaska Native to have served the Superior Court of the Alaska Judiciary. In 2015 he was honored to see Kodiak's courthouse dedicated the Roy H. Madsen Justice Center.

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