Clifford R. Everts

Clifford "Cliff" R. Everts was born in 1922 to Julia and Julius Everts, emigrants from Solingen, Germany. Clifford was the youngest of five children, two girls and three boys. Although the Everts didn't have much, the boys always had money. Everts and his older brothers found employment as newspaper boys.

Cliff started flying when he was 15 years old, before his first driver's permit and well before his driver's license. Everts performed his first solo flight before he could legally drive a car. When he finally got his driver's license, he immediately put it to good use making money. But then everything changed. He was working at Reynolds Airport when the war began on 7 December 1941. He left home and signed up for the Civilian Pilot Training program. People who signed up weren’t inducted into the army. He had over 150 flight hours and his private pilot’s license, so he was put into the cross-country instructors’ course. The government paid him to go to ground and flight school and train all summer in Turners Fall, MA.

In the summer of 1942, Cliff met H.W. Robinson, an aviation representative for L48 Rail Road tycoon R.W. Marshall. Robinson, who lived in Connecticut, was visiting New York looking for talented aviators. He offered Cliff a job with Alaska Star Airlines - which in 1944 would become Alaska Airlines - provided he would travel to Alaska. At the time, Alaska was considered an overseas assignment, and accepting a job there meant guaranteed military deferment. Cliff Everts was 21 when he traveled north. The trip cost him several days: he took a train to British Columbia, then a steamship to Skagway, jumped another train to Whitehorse and finally hitched a ride with Alaska Star Airlines pilot John Lynn up to Fairbanks, where he would stay before traveling south to Anchorage.

Once in Anchorage, Cliff started flying as a copilot in a Ford Trimotor for Alaska Star Airlines. It wasn't long before he discovered his deep love for Alaska. Everts made connections and friends fast. Cliff has always had more interests and goals than just piloting aircraft. Not unlike others in his time, he is a gifted entrepreneur, innovator, pilot, and adventurer and continues to be active in these areas today. Through the years, he has had several various “businesses” in addition to his flying career, everything from ice cream sales to a river boat hotel:

• The ice cream business: Archie Ferguson lived in Kotzebue and had an ice cream machine. Cliff took advantage of that business opportunity and, while flying the mail route, would pick up ice cream from Archie and sell it along his way from Point Hope to Point Lay.
• The Riviera Boatel: Cliff saw another profitable business opportunity when he purchased a river boat in Nenana, the “Yukon Health”, and towed it up the Tanana River to the Chena River in Fairbanks and created a restaurant and motel. He called it The Riviera Boatel.
• Alaska Rental and Sales: In 1960, Cliff partnered with Robert “Bobby” Sholton to purchase surplus and salvage goods under the name Sholton and Everts. Eventually Everts bought out Sholton and renamed the business Alaska Rental and Sales. He continues to buy and sell for the business.

At one time Cliff sold home heating oil, owned a gold mine and even had a company that specialized in environmental core drilling. He has owned and rented homes and office spaces, as well as operated a gas station called Airport Gas and Oil, off Airport Road.

After 35 years at Wien Airlines, Cliff retired in 1980. During his tenure, he flew more than 30,000 hours carrying mail, cargo and passengers to villages all over the territory and state. After “retirement”, he purchased his first Commando, N92853, from Wien when the airline was upgrading its fleet. At the time, Cliff did not have an operating certificate, so he leased the plane to Jack Coghill, owner of Nenana Fuel Company. Cliff then purchased a second aircraft, a Douglas DC6, and again leased it to Coghill who used the aircraft to haul fuel and freight. Soon, Cliff acquired his own operating certificate, and in the early 1980's he took over the two aircraft from Coghill and began operating them under Everts Air Fuel. By January of 1985, he was able to purchase the Wien hangar, putting Everts Air Fuel officially into full swing.

The 1990's proved to be a transitional period for Cliff when his son purchased several Douglas DC6s from him to use in the development of his all cargo business. Separate businesses, Everts Air Fuel, became dedicated to the carriage of bulk fuel and petroleum product transportation, while Everts Air Cargo, his son's operation, focused on the transportation of cargo only. By 1995, between Cliff's big business, Everts Air Fuel, and his son Robert's business, Tatonduk Outfitters Limited, the pair owned 21 airplanes. Six of the planes were flying and transporting about five million pounds of freight and millions of gallons of fuel annually to destinations all over Alaska.

Cliff is the largest owner of operating piston engine aircraft in Alaska. With parts already hard to find, because they were no longer being manufactured, the non-flying aircraft in the Everts fleet ranged in status from “In Service” to “Storage” to “Organ Donor” to “Now a House”. Over the course of time, Cliff leased airplanes to outfits all over the USA, salvaged aircraft and has stockpiled enough surpluses to open a commercial warehouse. One of his largest purchases was the C-46 Parts Inc. inventory in 1992. It took 45 vans to move the surplus parts from Florida to Fairbanks. The same year, he also purchased two surplus fire bomber DC6s from the French government.

Cliff Everts and his wife Betty have five daughters and one son. Between Everts Air Fuel and Everts Air Cargo, more than half of the family is involved in Alaska aviation. Everts himself continues to work seven days a week.

• Curtiss C-46A-45-CU Commando: N808Z / N1419Z, N4860V
• Curtiss C-46A-50-CU Commando: N92853
• Curtiss C-46A-55-CK Commando: N1548V
• Curtiss C-46D-5-CU Commando: N5579Z