Danny Kelton Presley, 70, was called home on Friday, September 13th, 2024, at the southern end of Tustemena Lake, while flying and looking for moose with his brother, Keith Presley.

Danny was born April 13th, 1954, in Gallup, New Mexico to Naomi (Tecklenburg) and Gary Presley. At the age of 5, Danny and 5 other boys, including a few of his cousins, were loaded up into the back of a pick-up truck, in a homemade wooden camper, to come homestead in Happy Valley, with their families. Danny spent his youth roaming the Caribou Hills and woods of the Southern Kenai Peninsula on foot and horseback, and they became like his own back yard.

Danny grew up in Happy Valley, attending Ninilchik School from kindergarten through 12th grade. He played basketball throughout high school. Danny would meet the love of his life early in his childhood. Gail was a friend of his cousins, and often came to visit the homestead when they were children. As they grew older, they went to rival schools. One night, they attended a dance, and after one spin on the dance floor, history was written. Danny and Gail were married December 17th, 1976. They had 4 children, Sean, Daniel, Kristin and Mala.

After graduating from high school, Danny went to work for ARCO in the Cook Inlet before transferring to the North Slope, where he remained for 34 years. He spent 29 years on the North Slope volunteer fire department, before retiring from BP after 36 years in the oil field, in the spring of 2014.

Danny was not a man who could sit still for long.

He rode bulls and roped at the Happy Valley Rodeo until 1980 when he decided to give it up. He continued to stay active in the Happy Valley Rodeo for many years, until it was moved to Ninilchik.

Danny was an active member of the Anchor Point Church of Christ. He regularly gave sermons, led worship, organized men’s meetings, taught lessons, organizing bible studies, and helped with the maintenance on the building for many years.

In 2007, Danny started volunteering for World Christian Broadcasting, a Christian radio station based in Anchor Point. In 2008, with his wife Gail, he traveled to Madagascar to help build Station MWV, connecting antennas and allowing listeners in the middle east, Africa, Brazil, and North Korea to hear broadcast media allowing them to become aware of the good news of Jesus Christ. Danny spent many nights at the radio station broadcasting to areas across the globe, the message of God.

In 2019, Danny and several other men of the Anchor Point Church of Christ were instrumental in helping Norman and Libby Smith start the Norman Lowell Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to preserving Norman Lowell’s work and homestead in Anchor Point. Danny was the treasurer of the foundation at the time of his death.

Many people know the Presley family because of the Tesoro gas station in Ninilchik. Danny and his wife Gail, his brother Keith, and sister-in-law, Tessie, bought and operated the gas station together from 1991 until Keith and Tessie took over the station in 1996.

Danny was on the board for the Lowell Airfield Homeowner’s Association, a private airfield in Happy Valley where he hangered his plane. Danny bought his first plane with dad, Gary, in 1978, and continued to stay an active pilot for 44 years. One of Danny’s favorite past times was flying over the Caribou Hills, counting moose, tracking the number of cows and bulls in areas, while keeping track of them on a map that hung on the wall in his office. He had tracked the numbers of moose in the Hills for years and knew when the numbers were increasing and decreasing every season. His knowledge of the area and moose populations earned him a spot on the board of Alaska Department of Fish and Game in 2018, in which he was still active at the time of his passing. Danny was looking for moose the day he was called home with his brother Keith.

In addition to all his volunteer and work activities, Danny and Gail spent 41 years farming in Happy Valley, raising horses, chickens, cows, and many other kinds of other animals, haying and helping others when needed to put up their hay. Danny continued to hay the 13 acres of hay fields Gail was left by her father in Homer, where they moved and built their retirement home in 2019.

Danny enjoyed hunting, fishing, hiking, traveling, looking for antler sheds on either ATV’s or horseback in the back country, biking, and other crazy adventures to keep busy during retirement. In 2002, Danny was drawn for a once in a lifetime hunt and with his son Sean and brother Keith, he hunted the Tustumena bench, taking a Boone and Crockett Bull Moose, measuring 75.5 inches.

Danny was preceded in death by his parents Gary and Naomi Presley. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Gail, his children Sean, Daniel, Kristin, and Mala, his daughters-in-law’s Jennifer, Leah, and Randi, grandchildren, Caley (Jerry), Camron (Genevieve), Cason, Marek, Makenzie, Maxen, Valette, and Theron, great-grandson Quigley, and an unborn great grandson, close family friends Jeff and Dana Jaworski, his sister Gari Lyn (Randall) Anderson, and many other family and friends who love and adore him greatly.

A joint celebration of life for Danny and his brother Keith Presley will be held on October 5th, 2024, at 2 p.m. at the Ninilchik Fairgrounds Carol Bock Hall. Please bring a side dish, appetizer, or a dessert, with stories of Danny and Keith, and come to love on the families, both blood and chosen, of these great men, who have made such an impact of many lives in the community.