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FAIRBANKS -- Ted Stevens first came to Alaska in 1953 to be a lawyer.

He became a pillar of Alaska politics.

Stevens, one of the longest-serving senators in U.S. history, began his Alaska journey as a World War II veteran with a new bride, a Harvard law degree and an affinity for the West developed during his teenage years in California.

He worked in private practice in Fairbanks but soon changed focus to become a federal prosecutor.

Over the next 15 years, he moved back and forth between Alaska and Washington, D.C., where he became a solicitor for the Department of the Interior, using his position to push for statehood.

In 1968, Alaska Gov. Walter J. Hickel appointed Stevens to the U.S. Senate to replace Sen. Bob Bartlett, who had died in office.

The appointment was the culmination of a goal for Stevens, then a Republican leader in the Alaska House of Representatives. He had lost earlier bids to join the U.S. Senate.

Stevens, then just 45, returned to Washington, D.C. Two years later, in 1970, a special election kept Stevens in office. After his 1972 re-election to a full term, an Associated Press report quoted him saying, “I’ll treat every day of the next six years as if the campaign will happen again tomorrow.”

Stevens has handily won re-election every six years since.

Not much is written about the senator’s personal life. He told reporters at a news conference three months ago in Fairbanks that he has turned down multiple requests from biographers. Nor is he planning to write his own life story.

“We should do what we can to make history and not write about it,” Stevens said. “I would rather spend my time working on the issues tomorrow rather than thinking about yesterday.”

World War II was happening as Stevens became a young man. He promised his aunt that he would not enlist until he was 19, according to a biography on his campaign Web site.

On March 15, 1943, Stevens joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to the Air Corps, which sent him on missions to China.

After the war, Stevens completed his degrees and joined a Washington, D.C., law firm, where he met his first wife, Ann, with whom he had five children: Susan, Beth, Walter, Ted Jr. and Ben. Ann died in a plane crash in 1978 in which Stevens was seriously wounded. Stevens later married Catherine and added a sixth child, Lily.

While living in Fairbanks, Stevens became close friends with Daily News-Miner Publisher C.W. Snedden, who years later bequeathed the senator a yacht. Stevens once told a reporter that Snedden was like an older brother, helping shape his career.

During his 40 years in the U.S. Senate, Stevens has worked tirelessly for Alaska, steering billions of federal dollars toward projects to build infrastructure, strengthen national defense and help families.

The effort didn’t go unnoticed by critics. Citizens Against Government Waste, a taxpayer watchdog group, once granted Stevens “The Hogzilla Award” due to the money from federal coffers he steered toward Alaska.

Stevens has played a role in all of the major federal legislation affecting Alaska over the past 40 years, including the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and authorization for the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Stevens has also been a key player in building up the state’s military bases.

In 1993, at a Fairbanks celebration of Stevens’ 25th year in the Senate, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike whispered happy anniversary to the senator, echoing Monroe’s famous breathy tribute to President Kennedy on his 45th birthday.

“I’m having a helluva lot of fun,” Stevens told an Associated Press reporter at the Anchorage celebration. “Sometimes I pinch myself that I’m still there and I’ll keep serving as long as Alaska keeps sending me back.”

Stevens was later named Alaskan of the Century by the state Legislature. The airport in Anchorage carries his name.

In 2002, President George W. Bush called Stevens “a great man” in a speech given at the Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue Law Firm Building in Washington.

Stevens is a proponent of Bush’s war on terrorism.

“I really am honored to be here with Ted. I appreciate a lot about him,” the president said. “I appreciate he’s a straightforward fellow. There’s no question. You know where he stands in the great Alaskan and, for that matter, the great Texan tradition. There’s no, as we say down home, there’s no bull about him.”

For years, Stevens cultivated a reputation as a hothead, sometimes sporting an Incredible Hulk tie.

In 1992, Senate staffers voted Stevens the lawmaker with the hottest temper.

Stevens’ dealings have been the subject of scrutiny over the years.

A long expose that ran in the Los Angeles Times in 2003 indicated that Stevens used his influence to help his and his wife’s business associates.

In one example, Stevens was said to push for a $450 million military housing contract that went to an Anchorage developer who had been helping Stevens invest money.

The next year, a report came out that some of the money Steven had steered to the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward was paid to a former aide in a land deal.

Stevens has also come under fire for reportedly helping line the pockets of his son through appropriations to the seafood industry. Ben Stevens, a former state senator, is also the subject of an FBI investigation.

Stevens completed six years as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee in 2004. The chairmanship marked the height of his influence.

Stevens was the president pro tempore of the Senate—third in line for the presidency—from 2003 to 2006.

Contact staff writer Amanda Bohman at 459-7544.