Passings: Mike Gordon, founder of Chilkoot Charlie’s and former Anchorage Assembly member

By SUZANNE DOWNING

April 4, 2026 – Mike Gordon, the larger-than-life founder of Anchorage’s iconic Chilkoot Charlie’s nightclub, mountaineer, author, and former elected official, has died while traveling overseas, according to friends and associates. He had spent much of the past couple of years traveling. He was 83.

He died on Good Friday in Kolkata, India. He and his wife Shelli, married for 43 years, were at the Kolkata airport waiting for their flight home when Shelli asked for the airport doctor, who put them in an ambulance. Mike died a few minutes later. Shelli remains in Kolkata, working with the US Consulate and Indian authorities to bring his remains home to Alaska.

Gordon was one of Alaska’s most colorful modern figures. He was a bar owner who later became a globe-trotting climber, memoirist, and public servant whose life mirrored the state’s own boom-and-bust energy.

He founded Chilkoot Charlie’s in 1970 in Anchorage’s Spenard neighborhood. The nightclub, known simply as “Koot’s,” became a cultural institution during the pipeline construction era and for decades afterward, with its maze of themed rooms, live music, and offbeat décor. Gordon owned and operated the club for 45 years before selling it to employees in 2015.

Born in 1942, Gordon arrived in Alaska as a child, moving with his family to Seward in 1953. He later graduated from Anchorage High School in 1960. He earned a bachelor’s degree in politics with a minor in philosophy from the University of San Francisco and later completed a master’s degree in writing at Alaska Pacific University.

Though known for running one of Alaska’s most famous taverns, Gordon reinvented himself in midlife. In his 40s, by his own telling a “bar stool” owner, he began mountain climbing and quickly took on some of the world’s highest peaks. By age 50, he had summited the highest mountain on six continents and made three attempts on Mount Everest, reaching approximately 27,500 feet on his final try. He also completed 15 marathons.

Gordon chronicled his adventures, struggles, and Alaska’s wild pipeline-era culture in memoirs including Learning the Ropes, Naked Alaskan, and DAGNABIT! His writing at times explored addiction and recovery, business risks, mountaineering, and Alaska’s larger-than-life personalities.

In addition to business and writing, Gordon served in public office during Anchorage’s early municipal years. He was elected twice to the Anchorage City Council in the early 1970s prior to unification and simultaneously served on the Anchorage Borough Assembly. He later served twice as chairman of the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, appointed by Gov. Steve Cowper and later by Gov. Frank Murkowski.

He was the very last living member of the last Anchorage City Council, having worked on unification of the City of, and Borough of, Anchorage, zoning of the Anchorage bowl and establishment of the A and C Street Couplet. He was also an Eagle Scout.

Both his children live in New Mexico. He has 7 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren with a 7th due in June. He was an Eagle Scout.

Gordon spent his later years living across Kachemak Bay from Homer with his wife, Shelli, continuing to write and travel.

He is survived by his wife, Shelli; daughter Michele and son Michael, both of New Mexico; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren, with another on the way this summer.

For many Alaskans, Gordon’s legacy is inseparable from Chilkoot Charlie’s, but his life stretched far beyond a nightclub, as a climber, writer, public official, and storyteller whose personal reinventions reflected the adventurous spirit that defined Alaska during the pipeline era and beyond.