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John Bruce "Jack" Coghill (September 24, 1925 – February 13, 2019) was an American politician and businessman who was the sixth lieutenant governor of Alaska from 1990 to 1994, serving under Governor Walter Hickel. Both were members of the Alaskan Independence Party.
Originally elected as the Republican Party's lieutenant governor nominee in 1990, Coghill had faced serious compatibility issues with running mate Arliss Sturgulewski. AIP chair Joe Vogler vacated his party's nominated slate of John Lindauer and Jerry Ward and replaced them with Wally Hickel and Coghill. While Hickel turned his back on the AIP and their platform almost immediately after taking office, Coghill remained loyal to the party, even becoming their gubernatorial nominee in 1994. Prior to these events, he was well known in Alaskan political circles as "Mr. Republican."
He would be once again elected to the state Senate in 1984, and served until he resigned on December 3, 1990 to assume the post of lieutenant governor. Coghill was also elected to Alaska's constitutional convention, serving as one of the 55 Club (55 members wrote the constitution in 55 days) and his copy of the constitution hangs in Constitution Hall on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2004.
Coghill had two older brothers, William F. (deceased, Col. U.S. Army Ret. and former CFO of the Alaska Railroad) and Robert A. Sr. (deceased, managed Coghill's Store after the death of William A.), who stayed in Alaska their entire lives. He published his autobiography, "Growing up in Alaska" in 2009 describing his personal and political life in the 49th state, as one of its last surviving state constitution signatories. Coghill died on February 13, 2019, at the age of 93.
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