From the March 11, 1960
San Diego Union


NOW (well -- 2023)



Tom plays a solo set of original tunes for the 2023 Alaska
Folk Festival one day after turning 70-years-old
(Photo from the Juneau Empire April 11, 2023)

Tom Koester was interviewed on July 28, 2008 at his home in Juneau, Alaska. He was the attorney for the State of Alaska for the Vern Weiss case and discusses his experiences with the mental health trust litigation and settlement.

Vern Weiss filed a lawsuit on behalf of his son, who required mental health services that were not available in Alaska. Other beneficiary groups joined Weiss v State of Alaska in a class action suit stating that the state breached its fiduciary responsibility to manage Trust land. The case was ruled on in 1984 by the state Supreme Court, which ordered that the original trust be restored.

Here’s the opening paragraph of the interview:  I was born in Nebraska in 1944 and grew up in San Diego, California, where my dad was a Professor of Education at San Diego State University, and subsequently the Executive Dean at San Diego State. I went to San Diego State as an undergraduate, and then to California Western School of Law and graduated in 1975.

Click below to read, or listen to, both hour-long interviews.

https://jukebox.uaf.edu/interviews/362

https://jukebox.uaf.edu/interviews/363