Hans Theodore Geier, formerly of Minnesota, passed away in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Thursday, May 30, 2024 after a brief battle with advanced kidney cancer. He was 67 years old.

Hans was born on October 10, 1956 in Fosston, Minnesota, the son of Gerhardt F. Geier and Celestine Anne (Muschinske) Geier. His first ten years were on his family’s 720-acre farm in Badger Township, near Erskine, where he attended school through the fifth grade. His dad died before Hans turned ten, and his mother died three years later. Hans then lived with a succession of godparents, relatives and friends on the Iron Range in Keewatin and in rural Stewart, Minnesota, in Boon Lake Township, graduating from Buffalo Lake High School in 1975. He worked for Eckert’s fertilizer and farm services business in Gibbon, Minnesota before going on to complete his undergraduate degree at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall with a double major in history and economics. This was followed by a graduate degree in agricultural economics and cooperative studies from Washington State University in Pullman.

Hans moved to Alaska in the early 1990’s, where he continued his career as a resource economist with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. His work for UAF took him to remote areas throughout rural Alaska, the roadless Alaska bush, and the Aleutian Islands, working with Native corporations, in fisheries, and as part of the Alaska agricultural community, for nearly 30 years. He was a published author in regional economics and also helped set up a food cooperative in Fairbanks that emphasizes local products and produce. He was married to his longtime partner, Marilyn Berglin, in 2007.

Hans’ entire life was spent in and around agriculture. He started driving tractors when he was only 5 years old and never really stopped farming, working on farms in south central Minnesota throughout his high school and college years. Even as a graduate student in Washington he drove combine in the wheat harvest on the Palouse every year. In Alaska, he developed a 400-acre farm east of Delta Junction, clearing land with a D-8 Caterpillar and raising small grain and hay during the short growing season while commuting 120 miles each way from his home in Fairbanks. He loved farming and working the land.

Hans was also someone who had an astonishing ability to make enduring friendships with many people of all social and political milieus. He remained in contact with his several surrogate parents and their families, always claiming he had four mothers, including his birth mother, Celestine, his godmother, Lenore Hartmann, his most demanding and loving aunt, Mavis Wehking Geier, and his family friend and neighbor, Sharon Penaz Skolberg, who with her husband Ted provided his high school home and refuge. His friends enjoyed his fearless, acerbic sense of humor that connected him with the real world without ignoring the spiritual and inspirational. As one of them said, “he was the most open-minded person I’ve ever known”. He cherished lifelong memories of the years spent with his godfather, Leslie Hartmann, his most active uncle, Ralph Geier, and his friend and mentor, Ted Skolberg, as well as both of his birth parents and his grandparents.

Hans is survived by his wife, Marilyn Berglin of Fairbanks, Alaska; stepchildren, Robert Kocsis (Laura) of Bandon, Oregon, Ashley Kralman (Michael) of Fairbanks, and Amber Allen (Lloyd) of Anchorage, Alaska; brothers, Karl Geier (Kathleen) of Dallas, Oregon, Max Geier (Keni) of Wenatchee, Washington, and Joel Geier (Rebecca) of Corvallis, Oregon; one grandchild, Calipso Kocsis of Portland, Oregon; several nieces and nephews; and numerous cousins. He was preceded in death by his parents and by his only sister, Elisabeth Geier Bakich, who passed away in 2014.

Some of Hans’ ashes have been spread in places most important to him, in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. Some will also be buried beneath a memorial to Hans in the pioneer Sorum Cemetery on the northeast corner of the former family farm in Badger Township, a place that despite all of his travels he never really left.

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