EMERY TOBIN: Pistol-Packin' Reformer Ketchikan has had many notable citizens in the city's 102 years of history, but perhaps none stands out so boldly as the late Emery Tobin, who died in 1977 at age 81. His roster of activities and accomplishments in Ketchikan is lengthy and incredibly varied. He joined the newly founded American Legion Post 3 in 1921, became a member of the Chamber of Commerce in 1923, and was a charter member of Ketchikan Rotary in 1925. In the early 1920s he also was an active leader in Ketchikan's Boy Scout Troop #1, the first troop in all of Alaska, anti he was a volunteer drama coach for the high school's theatrical productions. He was later a founder plus publisher and editor of the Alaska Sportsman magazine, which continues today as the nationally known Alaska Magazine. His magazine office and his Alaska Specialties novelty shop were located in the old 1904 Yates hospital on Mission Street-now the Seamen's Center. The Rain Gauge that stands next to today's visitor bureau on the dock was first erected in front of Tobin's shop. He was an avid booster of tourism and sold Alaska books and novelties through ads in his Alaska Sportsman magazine. But those things are not necessarily what Emery Tobin is remembered for. Emery's claim to fame is that he is said to be the man who spearheaded the closure of the city's red light districts in 1953, ending 50 years of openly tolerated prostitution in Ketchikan, Alaska! He became a hero to some and an arch villain to others. It was during that contentious crusade that Emery kept a pistol at hand on his desk. Although he served in France in World War Ⅰ, Emery was not a man one would ever connect with a firearm. He was not tall, he bad a rather high voice and a Boston area accent he never lost, which made an R sound like a W—some people thought it was a lisp. He spoke rapidly and with great assurance. Even after his hair turned white, he still had thick black eyebrows on a brow ridge that made smiles that blossomed on his face seem closer to frowns. When he walked with his rapid gait down Ketchikan's wet and breezy streets, head bent and hands in pockets, he appeared to be bucking a powerful headwind. Even into his sixties Emery was fearless. When a young man shoplifted something and departed running from Emery's Alaska Specialties shop on Mission Street, Emery took off after him, legs and arms pumping. He tackled the miscreant to the wet sidewalk in front of the entrance to St. John's Church and pinned him there until help arrived. Some of Emery Tobin's spirit and determination must have come directly from his father. Emery Fridolf Tobin was born to August and Emma Tobin, Swedish immigrants, on Dec. 14, 1895, in Quincy, Mass., ten miles south of Boston. August Tobin was a painting contractor, working for the school district. The great Depression of 1893 had affected everyone. Tobin's customers owned him money and Tobin owed money to his own creditors. Times were hard. Two years after Emery's birth, in 1897, news of the Klondike Gold Rush circled the globe, and among those infected with gold fever were August Tobin and his brother-in-law-Emma's brother. The two couples were close and had been married at a double wedding. Each little family had two children-the eldest of the four babies not yet two years old. The two fathers decided that one would have to stay and care for both wives and all four children the other would go to Alaska, make a fortune and return in a year to Quincy. At least that was the plan. So the men drew straws and August drew the long straw for Alaska. Emery loved to tell this story. He would lean back in his squeaky oak desk chair and his face was all smiles as he related his family's history. Emery's lather was long on confidence but short on money to get himself to Seattle, much less all the way to