Press Release

Charles B. West, Alaska Tourism Pioneer, Died 10/04/05, Age 90

Oct 5 2005 12:00AM

Charles B. (Chuck) West, the charismatic Alaska tourism pioneer and founder of Seattle-based Cruise West, North America’s largest small-ship cruise line, died Tuesday with his family by his side at his cabin in Haines, Alaska. He was 90.

West, whose colorful career earned him the nickname “Mr. Alaska”, died of natural causes.

Up until the early 1990s, West served as chairman and CEO of the company he founded, Cruise West. The line, now directed by West’s son, Richard G. West, chairman and CEO, is today North America’s largest small-ship cruise line, with ships in Alaska, British Columbia, California Wine Country, Mexico’s Sea of Cortés, Central America, Japan and the South Pacific.

In 1946, as a young pilot just back from flying “the hump” between India and China in World War II, West was serving as a bush pilot in Alaska. As West flew over some of the most spectacular terrain on Earth, his dream was born. He dreamed of sharing these wonders with the world.

While still a pilot at Fairbanks-based Wien Airlines, he organized, sold and piloted the first all-tourist air excursions to Nome on the Bering Sea and to the Eskimo village of Kotzebue on Alaska’s Arctic coast.

He went on from there to establish Alaska’s first tour company, Arctic Alaska Tours, and began marketing North Country package tours through travel agencies in the “Lower 48” states. In 1951 he moved his home offices to Seattle to be closer to his major markets and for many years lived with his wife and five children in Seattle’s Magnolia District, before moving to Bainbridge Island and finally settling at Providence Point in Issaquah.

Tourist facilities were meager in post-war Alaska. To provide for his travelers, he founded Alaska’s first all-tourist hotel chain, motorcoach network, and Inside Passage cruise line. All were devoted exclusively to tourist travel. In 1957, he gathered these package tour components under one umbrella company, Westours, which became a dominant operator in Alaska.

In 1973, he sold Westours to Holland America, and despite being 58 years old and having undergone two heart surgeries, he moved on and founded another Alaska travel company that grew to become the present day Cruise West, headquartered in the Fifth & Bell Building of downtown Seattle.

Initially offering space on the Alaska state ferries and other lines' ships, in the mid-1980s West began experimenting with multi-night daylight-only yacht cruises in Alaska's Inside Passage. This program, featuring the sleek 90-foot touring yacht Sheltered Seas, still operates today on 5- and 6-day tours between Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Glacier Bay National Park and Juneau.

In addition to a lifelong career building both Westours and Cruise West, West served for two years (1969-70) as president of ASTA. Commenting on West’s term at ASTA, George L. Fichtenbaum, then ASTA executive and president of American Sightseeing International, wrote:

    “His two-year term as president . . . was a period of confrontation over issues that most ASTA members were not yet prepared to face up to. . . . He transformed a polite society into an industry force that has a powerful influence on the relationships between travel agents, tour operators, the traveling public and the transportation industry. To achieve this transformation he met the industry head on¾no petty politics, no fence straddling, no feeding the members just what they wanted to hear. Fifteen years after he served as ASTA president, most of the issues he fought for have come to pass.”

Through the years, West received many awards for his achievements. Among them: membership in ASTA’s Travel Hall of Fame; the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement; membership in the Alaska Business Hall of Fame; the Alaska Visitors Association North Star Award for lifetime achievement; the Onore de Amerigo Vespucci award presented by Traveling Times; and the United States Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross

      “for meritorious achievement . . . while participating in many hours of operational flight over the dangerous and difficult Assam-China air routes, flying day and night missions at high altitudes over impassable mountain terrain through areas of extremely treacherous weather conditions. . .” He is survived by his wife Marguerite, three daughters – CarraLee Bolger, Barbara West and Ral West – son Richard, 12 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

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Cruise West – a second-generation, family-owned business based in Seattle – offers the opportunity to explore remote, worldwide locales by providing distinctive, one-of-a-kind, personalized itineraries not offered by the traditional larger cruise lines. Cruise West’s smaller ships – nine in all – hold between 78-138 people each, and the casual style onboard encourages relaxation and congenial interaction between guests and crew alike. The experience is personally enriching through expert Exploration Leaders providing onboard narrative and lectures, special local guests from a wide variety of backgrounds, and the library provided on each vessel. All have forward lounges and ample outdoor deck space for viewing and photographing wildlife and scenery. All vessels are also equipped with inflatable landing boats for close-up exploration of remote areas and shore landings.

Destinations served include: Alaska and the Bering Sea, British Columbia, Columbia & Snake Rivers, California Wine Country, Mexico's Sea of Cortés, Costa Rica & Panama, Japan, the South Pacific, and the Kuril Islands.