Susan Butcher

She leaves loving memories for all Alaskans to share

By Larry Persily
Anchorage Daily News- Opinion
Published: August 7, 2006

She was a force. That's what most Alaskans will remember about her. Indomitable spirit and dazzling smile, a woman who could light up a room and win a 1,100-mile race to Nome. She seemed a little bigger than life. That makes sense, given that she helped to define a place and time in Alaska.

Susan Butcher did what she set out to do: win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome, not just once, but four times. She so dominated the race in the late 1980s that the top male mushers joked they were pulling for her to get pregnant so she wouldn't be able to race.

At times that looked like about the only way she'd lose. At her Iditarod peak, she seemed like a force of nature. There was a sense of inevitability about her winning, just as there had been for her rival Rick Swenson when he ruled the race.

It may have looked easy, but it wasn't. The late Joe Redington, who helped Susan Butcher early on in her Iditarod career and worked with her in the fish processing business, marveled at her determination. That determination drove day after day of hard work that built stellar dog teams, a legendary lead dog in Granite, and a no-quit spirit that wasn't just attitude, but soul-deep. She was strong and demanding -- most of all of herself -- with a champion's focus that had little patience for distractions.

She wasn't all sweetness and light on the trail, for sure. But joy broke through, her joy in the race and the mushers and the dogs and Alaska. This formidable woman was at her best on the trail.

Success didn't happen all at once and she didn't achieve it alone. Her husband, David Monson, helped build the racing team that she drove so well. And her husband stood by her side and fought alongside her to her dying day.

Susan Butcher was blessed with the family she wanted. Daughters Tekla, 10, and Chisana, 5, spent as much time as possible with their mother over the last eight months of her struggle with leukemia. She fought that battle with some of the same qualities that helped her run the Iditarod -- intelligence, drive, courage and humor. And tenderness -- she welcomed the care and love of so many Alaskans beyond family and friends. Both she and her husband wrote more than once of the strength they drew from e-mails and other messages.

She was inspiration to so many women that the mention seems almost cliche. The messages of the widespread and lasting marks she made were amazing. She changed so many lives, and so many gained from her strength.

Few are the women who could follow her trail. Few are the men. That's part of the definition of any exceptional woman or man. She leaves her magnificent story. She leaves her family, to whom Alaskans send their love and prayers.

She leaves something else, too, for all of us. A gift of her life, how she lived and how she died.

In hard times, Alaskans might remember some of Susan Butcher's fire to strengthen their spirits. She showed the way.