Roberta Highland, 75, died April 24. 2025.
Roberta was born July 8, 1949, in Duluth, Minnesota to Barbara and Bruce Highland.
When Roberta Highland was a student nurse at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota, a patient told her that he had worked hard all his life, and put off until retirement everything he had really wanted to do. “And now I am 65 and have heart failure,” he said. Roberta decided she wasn’t putting anything off to the future, neither the work, nor the fun.
Few people pack as much fun and adventure into one life as did Roberta, and fewer still provide the public service she gave to improve the lives of others in the communities where she lived, especially the Kachemak Bay area. It was the things that were the most fun that inspired the most public service, combining her passions with her compassion.
Roberta graduated from Saint Luke’s School of Nursing, Duluth, Minnesota in 1970. Her best friend Joan Esther Nynas inspired her to move to Alaska in 1972, where Roberta worked at the Palmer Hospital, Alaska Native Hospital and finally Providence Hospital in Anchorage. A lover of downhill skiing, she worked as a volunteer teaching disabled children to ski, even learning to ski backwards as she helped them down the slope.
At a crowded event in 1978, with a popular band at the Day Lodge at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, she met Robert Archibald. As she was too short to see the band, he offered to lift her on to his shoulders. In their conversation later that night, she told him, “I’m looking for someone to hike the Chilkoot Pass and canoe the Yukon River.” “Look no further,” Robert answered. And that’s what they did the next summer.
They were married by Hobo Jim in 1981 at the top of the Alyeska ski area. They moved to the Homer area in 1985, where she worked at South Peninsula Hospital. For 47 years, they shared a life of adventure, public service, and generosity to their community.
Roberta grew up on a farm in Two Harbors, Minnesota, always loving horses and dogs. She and Robert rode horses together in Africa, in Ireland, in France, and (pulling a trailer with their own horses) on a road trip from Alaska along the coast through British Columbia to California, east to Arizona, and north through the Rocky Mountain States and provinces. They also helped develop, and raise funds for the Kachemak Bay Equestrian Association’s Cottonwood Horse Park.
Her passion for good health care for her patients led to her, along with fellow nurse Susan Arndt, persuading SPH to create the Home Health Department, where Roberta worked as director for 11 years. After retiring from her Home Health Care position, Roberta served 18 years on the SPH Service Area Board.
To overcome a fear of flying, she learned to fly, and earned a pilot’s license. So did Robert. They bought a Cessna 172, and flew it to Colorado, Utah, Minnesota, and back.
Roberta’s love of nature, and her camping and river trips around Alaska, led her to become an activist leader in environmental protection. She loved Kachemak Bay, always grateful for “another day in Paradise.” She served as a board member and volunteer naturalist for the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, a Founding Board Member of the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, and a board member and president of the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society. She played a significant role in numerous successful conservation efforts.
She served as co-chair of the Citizens for Responsible Land Use, which worked to create the Anchor River/Fritz Creek Critical Habitat Area. Gov. Bill Sheffield gave Roberta the pen he used to sign it into law. She helped organize support for the Kachemak Bay State Park land buy-back. She and Robert helped preserve the Diamond Creek Recreational Area lands in Homer, including raising and generously donating funds for land purchase. She was appointed to the City of Homer’s Planning Commission, on which she served for 14 years.
In 2013, Roberta was recognized for her environmental conservation work by receiving the Celia Hunter Award for Outstanding Volunteer Contributions, and in 2020 she received the Woman of Wisdom Award from South Peninsula Haven House. She and Robert donated 28 acres of their own wild land to Kachemak Moose Habitat, Inc.
Roberta was preceded in death by her parents, Barbara and Bruce Highland, and her brother, Bruce Highland Jr.
She is survived by her husband, Robert Archibald of Homer; her sister, Sandra Highland Voltz, of Two Harbors Minnesota, Sandra’s children, Kris Voltz Loining and Brad Voltz; and grandchildren, Zach Loining, Lydia Loining, Ivan Voltz and Illie Voltz; sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews, and many friends, including best friend Joan Esther Nynas, who brought her to Alaska in the beginning. We will miss her humor, fearlessness, enthusiasm and determination.
A Celebration of Roberta’s Life is being planned for Aug. 9, 2025, on the horse pasture at their residents.
Memorial donations in her name may be made to:
The Kachemak Bay Conservation Society
3734 Ben Walters Lane, Homer, AK. 99603
