The "The Pandora" towing eight boat loads of people to the dedication ceremonies for the Will Rogers and Wiley Post memorial observance August 15, 1938.

The Rev. Fred Klerekoper was a Presbyterian minister serving the Arctic coast. Almost every year between 1936 and 1945, Klerekoper made the trip from Barrow to the Canadian border. He kept a diary which is now an important record of the families who lived along the Beaufort Sea coast.

Fred Klerekoper physically helped build the monument to Will Rogers and Wiley Post at Walipi Lagoon, twelve miles southwest of Barrow on the Arctic Ocean.

Klerekoper also served as captain in the Alaska Territorial Guard, out of Barrow, 1943.

Klerekoper was born May 29, 1909 at Benton Harbor, Michigan, the son of a Presbyterian minister. He received his B.A. from Alma Presbyterian College in 1931 and his Bachelor of Theology degree from Princeton in 1934. He married Anna Miller Bruen, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, in 1934. The moved to Skagway in 1935 and to Barrow in 1936.

Klerekoper worked with Roy Ahmaogak on a phonetic alphabet and dictionary of the Inupiat language. In 1972, Alma College gave Rev. Klerekoper a doctorate of letters for this linguist work.

The Klerekoper's oldest daughter Martha, was born January 6, 1940. In 1946, triplet daughters were born, Emily, Anna and Caroline. The family eventually moved to Iran for five years of missionary work and learning the Turkish language. They later returned to the southwest of the United States. Dr. Klerekoper and his wife Nan were living in Austin, Texas, in 1977.)

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