Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Tower graduated from medical school in 1951 and moved to Anchorage in 1954. She worked for 25 years for the Alaska Division of Public Health. As a public health physician, Dr. Tower directed a major program to combat hepatitis. During her early years in Anchorage, she set up an office in her home to attend to the medical needs of prostitutes.

After retiring in 1986, she began researching and writing about prominent people in Alaska’s history including biographies of Sheldon Jackson, Austin E. “Cap” Lathrop and William Egan. Her work has provided other authors, such as Edna Ferber and Rex Beach, with backstories and inspiration for some of the colorful, real-life personalities appearing in their fiction. She has also written a guide to skiing in Alaska, several prize-winning magazine articles, a book, Icebound Empire, a history of the Kennecott Copper Company that earned her the award Historian of the Year from the Alaska Historical Society in 1996. While raising three children who have all settled in Alaska she led an active professional career and traveled widely in the Bush. She is past president of the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage and an active member of the Cook Inlet Historical Society. She holds a pilot’s license and is a talented artist.