Early Life, Family and Training William Acheff entered the world on January 28, 1947, in Anchorage, Alaska. His early years were shaped by the remote landscape of McGrath, where he lived until the age of five. His lineage was a complex weaving of many peoples, including Georgian, Russian, Scottish, Dutch, and Athabascan Indian ancestry. His mother was the daughter of an Athabascan woman and a Dutch-Scottish man who had traveled to Alaska during the gold rush. This diverse ancestry provided a deep, quiet connection to the roots of the land long before he ever picked up a brush. At five years…