04554
December 17, 2004

SJC professor killed in boating accident

Popular faculty member loved students and athletics

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE — Molly O. Ahlgren, a longtime fisheries professor at Presbyterian-related Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, AK, died in a boating accident Nov. 30.

      This 47-year-old Minnesota native, who was popular among her students and excelled in athletics, was also a medical technician with the Sitka Volunteer Fire Department.

      She was responding to a call for medical assistance when the 31-foot private vessel she was traveling in went hard aground on Gavanski Island in the Sitka Sound. Ahlgren had been standing in the boat when it went aground and according to Sitka police was thrown forward. She died at the scene.

      “She was such an integral part of our program in fisheries,” Art Cleveland, president of Sheldon Jackson College, told the Juneau Empire. “She was just a phenomenal person. Students thought so highly of her. Everyone is in such shock.”

      Police said Ahlgren and another medical technician were on their way to a small island in the nearby Siginaka Islands after an Alaska State Troopers recruit severely cut his finger during a survival training exercise.

      The reason the vessel went aground remains under investigation by the Coast Guard.

      The other technician was treated at a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The boat operator, who was not identified, was treated and released. Another vessel in the area picked up the injured trooper recruit.

      Sheldon Jackson College held a service of remembrance for Ahlgren
Dec. 7.

     Ahlgren, an aquatic ecologist, joined the faculty of Sheldon Jackson College in 1990 as assistant professor of fisheries and aquatic resources. She was promoted to associate professor in 2000 and continued in the Environmental Science Program until her death. She was voted faculty member of the year at the school in 1996.

    Ahlgren was president of the Alaska Chapter of the Western Division of the American Fisheries Society. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID, and her master’s and doctorate degrees from Michigan Tech University in Houghton, MI.

      Ahlgren, who was born Nov. 27, 1957, in Duluth, MN, excelled in athletics, including marathon running. She was once in the Olympic trials for Nordic ski racing and was an avid scuba diver. Ahlgren was also a founding board member of the Sitka Friends of Dance after discovering ballet later in life.