ustav Gelles was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1880, when his parents were visiting the European city. An American citizen, he was brought back to New York when he was a few months old. As a young man, “Gus,” as he was known to all, came to Alaska as a representative of the the National Grocery Company for the entire territory. His headquarters was in Juneau but he made frequent trips to the north prior to the time that Anchorage became a tent city. In 1920, he permanently moved the headquarters to Anchorage.

Wanda Nolan was born in Almota, Washington in 1892 and came to Anchorage in 1918 to be a cashier for the Bank of Alaska. In 1921, she was locked in the bank vault with the only customer during what was reported to be the first bank robbery in Anchorage. Gus and Wanda were married in 1921, and she left her position in the bank to become a mother and housewife. She served on the school board for nine years and ran Gus’s office as well.

Gus was known throughout the Territory of Alaska as the “Optimo Kid” because of his prowess as a sales agent for Optimo Cigars. He was on the first commercial flight from Anchorage to Kodiak with Russel Merrill. Gus was also instrumental in organizing KFQD, Anchorage’s first radio station, the Evan Jones Coal Company, and the Alaska Guides. In 1926, along with A. A. Shonbeck and Alonzo Cope, Gus organized Anchorage Airways, with Russel Merrill as chief pilot. The first aircraft was bought from Travel Air Manufacturing Company in Wichita, Kansas. Other local residents who were stockholders in the new venture were Oscar Anderson, Jack Collins, A. D. Balderston, Robert S. Bragaw, Jr., Pete Olson and Fred Parsons.

Gus was constantly promoting Anchorage, and was considered one of its best boosters. In 1935, along with Grant Reed, Herb Reed, and Frank Dorbandt as pilot, he left for Seattle in a Bowman Airways Travel Air. Gus returned with Dorbandt to Anchorage, becoming the first round-trip passenger on an airplane between Anchorage and the States.

Gus and Wanda had three children, born in Anchorage. Daughter Wanda Gelles Griffin, born in 1922, had four children; Charles Robert, Katherine, Sue and Marie. Son Robert Gelles, born in 1923, had three children; Laura, Leslie and Amalie. Daughter Katherine Urie, born in 1925, had two children, Anthony and Judith.

Wanda Nolan Gelles died in 1940, Gustav Gelles died in 1943, and both are buried in the Elks Tract, Anchorage Memorial Park. Kathryn Gelles Urie died in 1989 and her brother Robert died in California in 1992.