Hollis: His Story
Oil Worker, Prosecutor, State Senator
Hollis French has called Alaska home for more than three decades. At 19 years of age he found adventure working on an oil platform surrounded by the icy waters of Cook Inlet.
Hollis worked hard. He started at the absolute bottom of the oil industry, working as a bull cook, washing pots and pans. He was promoted to roustabout and then to production operator. As an operator, he ran the pumps, valves, and compressors that handled the oil as it came out of the wells.
Hollis’s hard work was rewarded with a job on the North Slope. For eight years he worked for ARCO Alaska, Inc., at Kuparuk, the second largest oil field in North America. These were the Slope’s peak production years, when 2.1 million barrels of oil were moving down the pipeline every day. Each shift competed with other shifts to see who could run the plant harder and put up better production numbers. Hollis loved the friendly competition, the hard work, and the sense of contributing to Alaska by working on the Slope.
While working at Kuparuk, Hollis met the love of his life, Peggy French. They shared a love of outdoor adventure and in 1987 they stood together on the summit of Denali. The next year they were married, and their son Chris was born. To this day the family enjoys outdoor adventures, whether it includes mountain climbing, skiing or fishing. (Read about Hollis and Chris’ harrowing attempt on Denali here)
Long days of work on the North Slope and a young family didn’t keep Hollis from earning a college degree. After 84 hour work weeks, Hollis would fly to Anchorage and attend classes at the University of Alaska Anchorage, bringing his coursework back to the North Slope for another week of work.
Here is what one of his mentors, Professor Tom Sexton, had to say about Hollis during those years:
“I met Hollis French years ago when he was working one week on and one week off on the slope as a production operator and at the same time working towards a BA degree at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. I remember thinking that he would most likely drop out of my poetry class before the semester was over as other slope workers had done before him; however, Hollis not only finished the class, he excelled in it. Even with his schedule, he was always prepared and displayed a keen analytical mind and winning personality in that and subsequent courses. The other students always listened to what he had to say. I was delighted when Hollis entered public service. He will be an outstanding governor.”
- Tom Sexton, Professor Emeritus of English
University of Alaska, Anchorage
In 1992 Hollis left the oil industry for a legal education. In 1995 he graduated from Cornell Law and returned to Alaska, taking a job at the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office. He spent the next six years prosecuting crime. Again he worked his way up through the ranks, beginning with DWI and domestic violence cases. He moved on to handle narcotics cases, burglaries, sex assaults and finally homicides. While most of his caseload was in Anchorage, Hollis also worked in Dillingham, Bethel, and St. Paul, doing trials in each location.
Hollis was elected to the State Senate in 2002. He provides leadership in the senate by chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee and advocating for Democratic values as a member of the Senate Bipartisan Working Group, the ruling coalition made up of ten Democrats and six Republicans. The Working Group, now in its fourth year of existence, has brought true bipartisan cooperation to the Senate in Juneau.
Hollis brought his expertise in criminal law to work in the Senate. The first bill he passed increased sentences for repeat sex offenders. His work in the oil industry has allowed him to take a leading role in resource issues as well. In 2007, Hollis was at the center of the rewrite of our oil tax laws. And last year, in the words of the Juneau Empire, he “led the charge” against the confirmation of Wayne Anthony Ross as Attorney General on the senate floor.
Hollis’s work in the Legislature has been recognized by groups such as the Alaska Firefighters, the Anchorage Police Department, the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, and the Alaska Democratic Party, which awarded him the prestigious Hugh Malone Award for his work on oil taxes.
Hollis has the energy and the experience to work tirelessly on the issues that affect all Alaskans. He has pumped oil on the North Slope and he’s put criminals behind bars. He knows first hand the value of a UAA education. As a state senator in a bipartisan coalition, he works with Republicans and Democrats alike. With his work ethic and his record of standing up for Alaskans, Hollis is the person to lead our state into the future.
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