St. Nicholas Catholic Church North Pole, Alaska

North Pole, incorporated as a city in 1953, is located 12 miles southeast of Fairbanks along the Richardson Highway. In 1967, it had 615 inhabitants; in the year 2000, 1,570.

On Sunday morning, September 28, 1975, Robert L. Whelan, S.J., Bishop of Fairbanks at the time, celebrated a Mass in the North Pole Grange Hall. Concelebrants were Father Richard L. McCaffrey, S.J., and Father Louis F. McKernan, C.S.P. Future Paulist James M. Kolb assisted. At that Mass, Bishop Whelan formally established the parish of St. Nicholas at North Pole, Alaska, and installed Father McKernan as its first pastor.

What became a thriving parish had humble origins. In the mid-1950s, Father Lawrence A. Nevue, S.J., stationed at Immaculate Conception parish in Fairbanks at the time, regularly visited the North Pole Catholic community and offered Mass, generally in private homes. During the early 1960s, the Catholic Church bought land in North Pole. Beginning around 1970, Sister Alice Legault, a Sister of St. Ann, using the North Pole Grange Hall as a base of operations, began to help gather people together when a priest was coming for Masses, and at other times to build a sense of parish life through Bible study groups, prayer meetings, and Communion Services.

The property originally bought at North Pole was sold. The property on which St. Nicholas parish is now located was donated by Mr. Ken Ulz of Fairbanks in the early 1970s. It was on this location that a modular double-wide mobile home unit, 24 x 60,’ with a large basement, was erected in the summer of 1975 as a temporary church and to serve as a home for the first pastoral team of St. Nicholas, Father McKernan and seminarian James Kolb. The two had come to North Pole in August of that year.

On May 7, 1978, ground-breaking ceremonies took place on the site where the new St. Nicholas Church was to rise. Father Francis E. Mueller, S.J., as Chancellor of the Diocese of Fairbanks, assisted by Father McKernan, officiated at the ceremony. At this time, weekend Masses were being offered in the basement of the parish house. It was not long before the new church was ready for dedication. Much of the construction work had been done by parishioners. The solemn dedication of St. Nicholas Church took place on December 3, 1978. Bishop Whelan
was principal celebrant at the services. Concelebrating with him were Bishop Francis D. Gleeson, S.J.; Paulist Fathers, Very Rev. Wilfrid A. Dewan, McKernon, Charles R. Kullmann, and Kolb; and Father William C. Dibb, S.J.

A new rectory was added to the parish complex in the fall of 1995.

The following Paulist Fathers, listed in order of service from 1975-95, served St. Nicholas parish: McKernan, Kolb, Kullmann, Vincent G. Wissman, Thomas W. Jones, Theodore A. Vierra, Dennis W. Hickey, Michael J. Martin, and James Fisher.

Father Jack de Verteuil served the St. Nicholas parish during the year 1989-90. From 1995-2002, Father J. Albert Levitre was pastor there. For a short time, during the year 2002, Father William E. Cardy, O.F.M., tended the North Pole parish. Father Ross A. Tozzi began as pastor of St. Nicholas in 2002, and has continued as such up to the present (2003).

Rev. Mr. Walter H. Gelinas has served Saint Nicholas Parish since the days of the Grange Hall when he was a founding member of the parish council. He was ordained a permanent deacon on November 1st, 1988. On November 2, 2003, Bioshop Donald Kettler celebrated a mass commemorating Deacon Walt`s 15 years of service to the parish.