... His father, Ed Gelvin, was more diversified. Over the years, he had become, it seems safe to say, as much as anyone in Alaska an example of what Steve Ulvi has in mind when he speaks so admiringly of "the man of maximum practical application". Mining, as it happened, was what first drew Ed and his wife, Ginny, into the country. ... Trapper, sawyer, pilot, plumber, licensed big-game guide, welder, ironworker, mechanic, carpenter, builder of boats and sleds, he suffered no lack of occupation. ...
-- John McPhee, Coming Into The Country (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977, 1991 paperback), pp. 232f.
