William Alex Stolt was born to
Finnish parents in
Boston, Massachusetts on July 5, 1900. He spent the first ten years of his life in
Finland, moving back to the
United States after the death of his father, and his mother's remarriage to a man in
Seattle. In 1913, the family moved to
Juneau, and then
Anchorage in 1917. He attended
Anchorage High School, graduating in 1920. He studied
electrical engineering at
Washington State College, and in 1929 married Lily, another student from Anchorage. Stolt worked as an
electrician, operating Bill's Electric Shop & Supply in Anchorage. In 1938, he filed for a
Homestead Act claim on land near
Otter Lake that was later incorporated into
Fort Richardson. He built a cabin with his brother Paul and lived there for a time, but he abandoned the claim in 1942. Stolt lobbied for the
Municipality of Anchorage to purchase Anchorage Light and Power Company and their Eklutna power plant in order to provide the fledgling city with better electrification. He ran successfully for city council and then, in 1941, mayor. The population of Anchorage at the time was about 5,000 residents. In December 1941, in response to the Japanese
bombing of Pearl Harbor and under the advice of Colonel
Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., Stolt ordered a partial blackout of Anchorage. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090902124941/http://geocities.com/wmaxwell/ch41.html In 1943, with Stolt in office, a municipal bond measure passed authorizing the purchase of Anchorage Light and Power, and in 1944, operation of the plant passed to Anchorage Public Utilities. Stolt founded Stolt's Home Center, which grew out of his electrical supply business and eventually became a
retailer of
consumer electronics. Originally located at 1000 East Fourth Avenue, the business eventually moved two blocks to the south, to the corner of East Sixth Avenue and Juneau Street, to take advantage of the better location when the business became more of a mass market retailer. Stolt's also operated a store in the
Dimond Center before closing in 1993. In 1994, Stolt was paid the back salary—totaling $1—for his last year as mayor in 1944. Stolt died in the Anchorage Pioneer Home on February 28, 2001. ==Legacy==