Anthony Joseph Dimond

Dimond High School was named for Anthony Joseph Dimond, an Alaskan pioneer legislator and federal judge who promoted statehood for the young territory.

 

Dimond was born in New York on November 30, 1881. Dimond left a teaching position in New York to emigrate to Alaska in 1905 and spent the next 48 years protecting and defending the land he loved. In 1913, he became an attorney and later that year was appointed U.S. Commissioner at Chisana, recording gold miners’ claims and settling their disputes. Later he became Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney in Valdez. Motivated by the goal of statehood for this Last Frontier, Dimond entered politics and served four terms in the Alaska Territorial Legislature and as mayor of Valdez for nearly a decade. He worked hard to unify the Territory’s interests and became Alaska’s sole delegate to the Congress of the United States from 1933-1945. His first acts were to introduce a Statehood Bill, which was ignored, to urge construction of the Alaska Highway, and to advise that fortifications be built in Fairbanks and Anchorage.

 

Dimond ended forty years of public service as a Federal Judge for the Third Judicial District of Alaska. In May of 1953, Judge Dimond suffered a heart attack and died a week later at Providence Hospital in Anchorage. November 30, his birthdate, was designated as A.J. Dimond Day to commemorate the distinguished service of the Alaskan Statesman.