Life-long Alaskan, Art was born in Fairbanks, prior to Statehood.  He graduated from Austin High School, and subsequently graduated from the University of Alaska class of 1974.  Art worked for one of the first airlines in both the country and the Alaska, Wien Air Alaska, until it closed in 1984.  
Art then went on to work in several other jobs, as that was the start of the 1980’s recession in the State.  One of which jobs was as a real estate appraiser.  Art received a job opportunity with Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) in 1988.  The job was as a property inspector, first an only for about 18 months, located in Anchorage with the property disposal department.  
At that time AHFC had repossessed 4800 properties state-wide.  Art had the opportunity to inspect quite a few of those homes throughout the state.  In 1991, having successfully liquidated most of the inventory Art decided to get into real estate sales.  Art worked for several companies, including a stint as broker at Real Estate Unimited.  Art joined Roy Briley at Real Estate Brokers of Alaska (REBA).  Art became the Broker at REBA and stayed on as Broker until January of 2019.  In June of 2019 Roger Briley and Art decided to team up and formed Alaska Real Estate Associates (AREA).
They decided they liked the idea of a smaller more-nimble company to be able to react properly to the changing economic climate in Alaska.  
E. Lathrop