Thomas Edward Schantz (2014)

SCHANTZ, TREADWELL, WALSH

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart
Date: 3/20/2014 at 22:01:44

Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, March 19, 2004

THOMAS EDWARD SCHANTZ, Valdez, Alaska

Thomas Edward Schantz passed away suddenly March 12, 2014, of an apparent heart attack while skiing with his family at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska. He was 49 years old.

Tom, born Oct. 30, 1964, in Rock Island, Ill., was raised in Iowa, and received a degree in Business and Finance from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. At age 18, he bicycled nearly 4,500 miles from Seattle, Wash., to Portland, Maine, with his twin brother Tim, and Mark Gordon, brother of famed Alaska artist Steve Gordon. While at Simpson, Tom was an all-conference varsity running back on the Simpson football team. After a backpacking trip to Denali with his brother Mike and friend Pat Kelly in 1991, Tom immediately decided to move north to Alaska. Within days of returning to Iowa, he drove to take the ferry to Juneau, Alaska. There, he met his future wife Donna Walsh. His first Alaska job was as a banker at Alaska Federal Savings and Loan.

In 1996, Tom won 20 acres of land in Prince William Sound’s Jack Bay through Alaska’s last homesteading land lottery. Tom built a beautiful cabin with the help of Donna, his brothers, father and many other friends and family members. Donna and Tom were married in 2000, and he kept his promise to his bride to replace the outhouse with real indoor plumbing as they completed an in-town home in Valdez. He enjoyed making buildings functional, and also works of art and models of energy efficiency.

Tom worked as a banker in Valdez with Bank of America and Wells Fargo. He oversaw finances for the Stan Stephens Cruises in Prince William Sound, and was part of the Cook Inlet Region, Inc. tourism marketing efforts. Eight years ago, he joined the City of Valdez as a finance director and most recently served as comptroller and served on the board of the Alaska Municipal League Investment Pool.

Tom was an avid outdoorsman and dedicated birder. After his identical twin brother Tim died leading a birding tour to Gambell in 2001, he and his family established the Tim Schantz Memorial Foundation. The Foundation awards a college-aged birder a trip to the Homer Shorebird Festival annually and provided one of the state’s most extensive collections of books on birding to the library of Cordova’s Prince William Sound Science Center. Tom’s internet bulletins of sightings guided many Alaska birders.

With his wife and two young children, Tom worked to reopen the Salmonberry Ski Hill in Valdez.

Tom was predeceased by his brother, Timothy Schantz, and his sister-in-law, Carol Walsh Treadwell and his nephew, Jack Treadwell.

He is survived by his parents, Dean and Kit Schantz of Winterset; wife Donna, son Timothy Eider (10), daughter Ellie (8) of Valdez, Alaska; brother Mike, sister-in-law Terri and nieces Amelia and Isabelle of Louisville, Colo.; brother-in-law Mead Treadwell of Anchorage, and nephews Timothy and William Treadwell and niece Natalie Treadwell of Anchorage, and 14 other in-laws in New York, Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to a college fund for Ellie or Timothy Schantz at First National Bank of Alaska. The Tim Schantz Memorial Foundation will be renamed the Tim and Tom Schantz Memorial Foundation in both brothers’ honor.