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Shell Simmons

While his daring exploits made national headlines, Shell Simmons was an innovator and entrepreneur at heart. He made his living in the air, but is remembered by friends and colleagues as down to earth. He was famous for daring rescues and mercy missions, but was eulogized as someone who put no stock in heroism—he just did what he thought was right.

Shell SimmonsShell Simmons (pictured at right circa 1980 at banquet honoring his early work) was a pioneer bush pilot of legendary renown. He founded one of the airlines that formed the Alaska Airlines of today.

"Shell often said he didn't want to be romanticized as a mercy pilot," Jim Johnson, Alaska Airlines senior vice president emeritus said at Simmon's November 1994 funeral in Juneau. "To him, the daring missions were just another aspect of the profession."

Indeed. There was much more to Simmons than heroic acts. He was a skilled businessman whose high standards helped build a one-plane fleet into a major regional carrier. He was an innovator, improving seaplane designs and engine performance all while playing a key role in gaining approval for instrument landings in Sitka and night flights in Juneau. He was an excellent mechanic with a background in engineering that earned him the admiration of federal regulators for the reliability of his planes. You could tell that he was passionate about his work by his frequent use of colorful language.

Shell SimmonsHe made giant contributions to Alaska Airlines, the state of Alaska, and commercial aviation.




Adventure, it seemed, was Simmons' middle name. At 16, he quit school to become a deckhand aboard a freighter bound for Asia. Over the next three years he'd drive a delivery truck in Ketchikan, study electrical engineering in Los Angeles, and work as an electrician in the Alaska-Juneau Mine.

He quit the mine so he and a friend could sail 2,100 miles down the Yukon River in a 14-foot rowboat. This led, indirectly, to his career in aviation. When they landed in the Arctic, he took a job on a runway construction project, where he got the flying bug watching Noel Wien and others land on the unfinished airstrip.


Simmons worked tirelessly. He flew at night, dropped off mail and Christmas turkeys for miners and even hauled the Juneau marshal to a gun fight. In the summer, he'd fly 16 hours a day. He was the first commercial pilot to fly year-round in Southeast Alaska.

When cash flow was tight, he'd accept company stock from his backers in lieu of salary, prompting one writer to describe Simmons and his well-worn attire as "a picture of poverty in flight." However, business grew and he acquired more planes. In 1939, he and competitor Alex Holden of Marine Airways joined forces to create Alaska Coastal Airlines.

