 william jennings sheffield, jr. (born june 26, 1928) is an american democratic politician who was the fifth governor of alaska from 1982 to 1986. sheffield's term in the governor's mansion was marked by controversy including attempts to have him impeached. while governor, sheffield pushed an unpopular bill through the state legislature to consolidate alaska's time zones. prior to the passage of this bill, alaska was spread over four time zones (pacific, yukon, alaska-hawaii, and bering). sheffield's bill placed virtually the entire state (with the sole exception of the aleutians, starting just west of dutch harbor) into the yukon time zone (which was then renamed the alaska time zone). initially, this was poorly received; those in the panhandle lost their sense of unity with the west coast of the united states, and those in the heartland of the state were placed, in effect, in a perpetual daylight saving time. more than twenty years later, the state legislature was still debating the issue, with some members wanting to return the panhandle and capital to seattle time, and with others claiming that sheffield broke his promise to revisit the change after a one-year trial period. after leaving the position of governor, sheffield served as chairman of the board of directors for alaska railroad from 1985 to 1997. in 1997 he was promoted to president and ceo of the railroad, where he served until 2001.{{cite web|url=http://alaskarailroad.com/arrc119.html|title=alaska railroad - history|publisher=alaska railroad|accessdate=2008-02-28 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20070928000909/http://www.alaskarailroad.com/arrc1
1928_births Alaska_Democrats American_Presbyterians American_railroad_executives_of_the_20th_century American_railroad_executives_of_the_21st_century Democratic_Party_state_governors_of_the_United_States Governors_of_Alaska Living_people People_from_Anchorage,_Alaska People_from_Spokane,_Washington