Legislation honoring three notable Alaskans was signed by Alaska's Governor Sean Parnell in Anchorage yesterday.

Governor Parnell penned his name and made one Senate Bill and two House Bills official on July 10th. The bills honored Benny Benson, Jay Hammond and Walter J Hickel.

Senate Bill 31 is legislation sponsored by Kodiak’s Senator Gary Stevens. The legislation officially names the state airport there the Kodiak Benny Benson State Airport. It was in 1927 that Chignik-born Benny Benson catalpaulted to state fame when he created the winning design for the state flag as a 13-year-old student at the Jesse Lee Children’s Home in Seward. The Stevens Bill also honors bush pilots Jim Andie and Robin Starrett with the naming of the Akhiok Airport. Andie and Starrett were bush pilots who died in crashes on Kodiak Island.

Representative Paul Seaton had a bill he sponsored signed by the Governor on Wednesday. House Bill 130 establishes July 21st of every year as Jay Hammond Day. Former Governor Hammond, born in 1921, served two terms as the governor of the State of Alaska from 1974 until 1982. During Hammond’s tenure as governor, the Alaska Pipeline was completed, the Alaska Permanent Fund was established and a settlement was reached in the Alaska National Lands Interest Conservation Act.

Another bill, this one designating a portion of Minnesota Drive and O’Malley Road as the Walter J. Hickel Parkway was signed by the governor. House Bill 153, sponsored by Representative Bob Lynn, honors two-term Governor Walter Hickel who served from 1966 and 1969 and from 1990 until 1994. He was the state’s second governor as well as the U.S. Secretray of the Interior under President Richard Nixon. Hickel’s voice and actions shaped the state from the territorial days before statehood and as the state was developed. Hickel dedicated many years of his life to moving the state forward.