Percy Ipalook was born 2 April 1906 at Barrow, Alaska.

Served as minister of Thornton Memorial Chapel, Presbyterian church founded on Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska.

His religious training came by way of the Reverends: Marsh, Spriggs, Spence, and Newhall -- but most of all by the missionary nurse Ann Bannon.

Ipalook also served as interpreter for Dr. Henry W. Griest, who had organized the Olgonik Presbyterian Church at Wainwright on 24 June 1923.

Ipalook spent five years at Sheldon Jackson High School at Sitka, and completed his academic and theological training at the University of Dubuque in Iowa. He returned to the Arctic and served as lay worker at Wales and Wainwright from 1934 to 1940. When he was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in 1941, he became the first full-blooded Inupiaq to be ordained. He went on to serve the mission churches at Wales, Gambell and Wainwright.

He served as the chaplain for the Alaska Territorial Guard (1942-47).

He was elected to the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives in 1949.

Percy and his wife Esther B. Fitch (b. 29 Dec 1914 - d. 29 March 1987) raised 11 children.

Percy, Sr. died 15 December 1990.