Byron Mallott, the Alaska Native leader who served as lieutenant governor under former Gov. Bill Walker, has died unexpectedly at age 77.
Walker confirmed Mallott’s death in a phone interview on May 8, saying that he’d been in touch with Mallott’s family. The Anchorage Daily News reported that Mallott suffered a heart attack in Juneau on May 7 before being flown to Anchorage.
Mallott, a Democrat, and Walker, an Independent, were both running for governor in 2014 before they merged their campaigns and went on to defeat the Republican incumbent. Mallott resigned from his job shortly before the 2018 election after making what Walker described as inappropriate overtures to a woman.
Mallott, a Tlingit Native, was raised in the coastal village of Yakutat and held an array of high-profile positions in business and government. He was president of Sealaska Corp., which is Southeast Alaska’s regional Native corporation. He was also the director of the state-owned corporation that runs the Alaska Permanent Fund and served on the board of directors of Alaska Air Group.