The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better by Will Storr.
What charity or cause are you passionate about?
Food Bank of Alaska [currently board treasurer].
What vacation spot is on your bucket list?
Hmm. Maybe Thailand.
Dead or alive, who would you like to see perform live in concert?
Elton John.
If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?
My 3-year-old is obsessed with moose and wants a moose to come live with us… Maybe a baby moose.
The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better by Will Storr.
What charity or cause are you passionate about?
Food Bank of Alaska [currently board treasurer].
What vacation spot is on your bucket list?
Hmm. Maybe Thailand.
Dead or alive, who would you like to see perform live in concert?
Elton John.
If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?
My 3-year-old is obsessed with moose and wants a moose to come live with us… Maybe a baby moose.
Off the Cuff
ush communities with Alaska Commercial Company (AC) stores are not nearly as far out as the cosmic mysteries Kyle Hill studied in college. The retail chain’s president majored in math and physics in New Brunswick, Canada, but he sought more down-to-earth applications. “Galactic astrophysics doesn’t have much impact on day-to-day life,” he observes.
Hill earned a master’s degree and PhD in medical physics while trying to augment lung MRI scans with hyperpolarized helium-3, which he says is still too complex for routine clinical use.
Data analysis figures into retail management, too, and Hill’s experience in rural Canada convinced AC’s owner, The North West Company, that he’d be their point man for Alaska. Based in Anchorage, he’s been AC president since 2021.
Kyle Hill: We’re pretty outdoorsy… I do a lot of cycling.
AB: What’s the first thing you do when you get home after a long day at work?
Hill: Well, I have a 3-year-old, so I’m either playing “music class” (strum on a guitar) or build little block towers.
AB: Is there a skill you’re currently developing or have always wanted to learn?
Hill: My neighbor gives guitar lessons, so I’ve been considering taking that course. For just ‘round the campfire.
AB: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
Hill: Skydiving, and I’ll never do it again. One time only… in Moncton, New Brunswick.
AB: What’s your favorite local restaurant?
Hill: For lunch, Sweet Caribou… For dinner, maybe South.
AB: What’s your greatest extravagance?
Hill: We went to Seven Glaciers restaurant [on top of Mt. Alyeska]… phenomenal and very extravagant.
AB: What’s your best attribute and worst attribute?
Hill: I can pretty quickly do any kind of [numerical] analysis, which can bug people because it’s not really my job now… I like to get into the details, which is good and bad.
