Yale Hyder Metzger

ANCHORAGE, AK- Yale Hyder Metzger, age 64, of Anchorage, Alaska, died at home on Saturday, June 1, 2024. Yale was born on October 20, 1959, in Adrian, Michigan. He lived a life full of constant adventures in Michigan, Tennessee, Georgia and Texas before settling into Anchorage, Alaska at Elmendorf Air Force Base. He graduated from the University of Alaska. He completed his law degree at Gonzaga University. Yale practiced law for about 30 years in Anchorage as a paralegal, investigator, and attorney/litigator. Yale and his wife Susan endowed a scholarship at Gonzaga University School of Law primarily for Alaska residents who are required to leave Alaska to attend law school. On May 19, 1995, Yale’s greatest blessing was granted when he married Susan Esther Richmond. Together Yale and Susan built a beautiful home and life in Anchorage. They recently celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary. Yale and Susan continued a life full of adventures and many blessings that they enjoyed sharing with family, friends. Yale was passionate about our justice system, arts, sciences, hunting, fishing and exploring. His interests led him to remote areas of Alaska as well as Ecuador, South Africa and Scotland. He was an avid collector of art, books, antiques and many other things. The collection he held as most dear, was the collection of the many friends he made over his lifetime. During the last decade or so, he expanded his networks of equally enthusiastic people from Alaska to Scotland. He and Sue restored a cottage, Ellerig Bheag, in Glen Shira (Inverary) in the Scottish Highlands. He frequently entertained family and friends in Inverary and at Balmoral where he was known as a frequent guest. He reveled in showing these sites. A few weeks before his passing, he drove down the one-and-a-half lane roads to share the Scottish Highlands with his mother, brother, sister in-law and close friends. In addition to his wife, Susan, Yale is survived by his mother, Shirley; Susan’s children, Bonnie (Jeremy) Hough, Waylon (Sarah) Knudsen and Joshua Pluid; grandchildren, Brayden Reeves, Riley Reeves and Mason Knudsen; siblings, Deborah (Bob Dahl) Metzger and David (Julie) Metzger; and his mother-in-law, Esther Richmond. He was preceded in death by his father, John A. Metzger. Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. at Oakwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donation may be made to the Yale Metzger and Susan Richmond Endowed Law Scholarship online at gonzaga.edu/lawgive/metzger or mail to: Gonzaga Law School Foundation 721 N Cincinnati Street Spokane, WA 99220 Alternatively, you may give to any children’s art program in your community. A celebration of life will be scheduled at a future date in Anchorage, Alaska. Arrangements have been entrusted to Wagley Funeral Home, Adrian, where online condolences and memories may be shared at www.WagleyFuneralHomes.com. “It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it” Albert Einstein “Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could.” St. Gregory Nazianzen

Yale Hyder Metzger

October 29, 1959 - June 1, 2024