Alan “Al” Latham, 79, passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 26, 2018, at the Villa in Mesa,
AZ, after a brief illness following hip surgery. Alan grew up in Seattle, Washington, the only child of
Waldo L. and Irene J. (LaDuke) Latham. A 1957 graduate of Queen Anne High, he attended Harvey
Mudd College, Claremont, California, on a full scholarship, graduating with a BS in Chemistry in
1961. Loving science and math, he continued his education on a scholarship to Rockefeller University,
New York, earning his PhD in Chemistry in 1966. While in college he fell in love with Alaska after
working summers for the Good News Bay Mining Company, a remote platinum placer mine on the
Bering Sea in Southwest Alaska. After graduation, he became Professor of Chemistry at Alaska
Methodist University (now APU) in Anchorage. He earned an “Excellence in Teaching” Award for the
university in 1970, was elected Outstanding Young Man of America in 1971, and Outstanding Educator
of America in 1972. He taught for several years concurrently serving as the Business Manager for the
University in his final years of teaching. In 1975, Alan went to work for the Alaska State Legislature's
Research Division as a Senior Policy Analyst authoring foundational legislation establishing the State's
revenue sharing severance tax model for the North Slope oil discoveries. In 1978, he married Audrey
Jill (Eckroate) Sewell joining Jill and her 3 year old son, Jason, whom he said he was also marrying.
With the help of Jill's dad, Alan built a new home for them on the Gastineau Channel in Juneau by
remodeling and adding onto an existing small beach cabin. They welcomed another son, Brian Alan
Latham, later that same year. They loved their life on the water, watching their dogs chase seagulls on
the beach, and enjoying sunsets over the ocean. In 1985, after serving a few years as the Business
Manager for Capital Office Supply, Alan and the family relocated to Seattle, Washington. Alan joined
the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as a Health Physicist in 1988 and became the Director for Radiation
Health and Environmental Safety Programs. He spent the next 14 years of his career in senior level
management positions over Environmental and Radiological Laboratory Services, working for
Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Company at the Nevada Test Site, as well as Bechtel and Teledyne
Brown in New Jersey and Tennessee. Alan retired in 2002. He spent his retirement years cooking
gourmet holiday feasts for his wife and sons and their expanding families, watching SCI-FI movies,
and vacationing on the Olympic Penninsula in Washington, in a rustic cabin high on a cliff overlooking
the Pacific Ocean, a place they had named Eagles' Roost. Alan was a generous and devoted family
man, as comfortable making fine wine, preparing a gourmet meal, or hanging sheet rock, as he was
discussing the loftier aspects of astrophysics and string theory. Preceded in death by his parents, he is
survived by his wife, Jill of Mesa, Arizona, his son, Jason Neal Sewell (Angela), and grandchildren
Alexandra (7), Samira (6), Kylianna (3) and Ravynn (1) all of Chino Valley, Arizona, and his son, Brian
Alan Latham (Nicole), and grandchildren Colton (8), Brooklynn (6) and Hudson (2) all of Mesa,
Arizona. His extended family includes sister-in-law Kathy Fernandez (Vince), nieces Kim Wells
(Paul), and Kristin Mumm (Joseph); nephews Michael Larson of Los Angeles, California, and Matthew
Fernandez (Bethany) and grandniece Olive (1), all of Anchorage, Alaska. He is also survived by
distant cousins, the extended families of his daughters-in-law, and loving friends. Donations can be
made in his name to the Arizona Humane Society, PO Box 90610, Phoenix, AZ 85066-0610. A
Celebration of Life gathering will be held for family and friends on Saturday, April 14th, 2018 at the
home of Brian Latham in Mesa, Arizona. Celebration inquiries should be directed to
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