This week, Bill Walker became the 13th governor of Alaska. Or the 11th. Or 16th. Depends on how you count.
As it turns out, the state of Alaska doesn’t appear to have an official way of counting governors and their terms.
Since statehood in 1959, two men, Bill Egan and Wally Hickel, served non-consecutive terms. Three — Egan, Jay Hammond and Tony Knowles — served back-to-back terms.
That would make Walker Alaska’s 13th governor.
But in the Hall of Governors — on the third floor of the state Capitol, outside the governor’s office — 14 portraits hang, including Walker’s.
The National Governors Association, on its website, lists 11 entries for governor of Alaska but doesn’t assign numbers to the office holders.
In the end, Egan said it doesn’t really matter.
“They were governor,” he said.
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