My name is Jeffrey H Conklin I was born on May 22nd 1957 in the territory of Fairbanks, Alaska.
My parents moved to alaska in 1954 from Duluth Minnesota and settled the Fairbanks area and divorced when i was 5. In 1967 my mother moved us to Juneau Alaska where we lived until 1969. I became very interested in commercial fishing at age 10, because my parents had a friend that owned a boat i got a job working on the boat, thus starting my life in the commercial fishing business.
My parents moved to Anchorage in 1969, I was allowed to return to Juneau to fish during summer vacations. In 1970 my family moved to Cordova Alaska where i continued to commercial fish and at age 15 I became the skipper of a 58ft Cape Seiner with the financial help of my stepfather, Floyd. He was the only male role model i had growing up.
I joined the Marine Corps in 1975 after serving two years in the marine corps I returned to Alaska in 1977(kodiak) where with the help of my childhood friend i bought a Bering sea King Crab boat and continued Fishing around Kodiak and Dutch Harbor Alaska until 1987 at age 30 when i was paralyzed in a single vehicle accident while on vacation in Minnesota. I broke my neck in 3 places and my back in 3 places (21 brakes in the 6 disks).
My mother was married 5 times while I was growing up and all but one of her husbands were abusive. During this time frame from age 7 I started drinking in the bars with my parents, at age 14 I was using drugs including cocaine. This became a struggle throughout my life and caused me a lot of grief, broken relationships, and time in prison for drug and alcohol related crimes. I have been clean and sober now since October 28th 1994.
In 2000 I moved next to a guy who was really into carving, after getting to know him i asked if he could teach me how to carve Eagles and Whales before he moved to Homer Alaska. Though I have not been carving for very long I find that carving helps keep my mind off my childhood abuse and gives me something constructive to do with my time.
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