Robert Zoller (or rather, Bob Zoller) had served as a navy officer during World War II and, while he was in Newfoundland, he met an Alaskan Malamute that greatly impressed him for his bold attitude and powerful build, but also for his gentle expression. When the war finished, Zoller decided to contact a few breeders in order to see this splendid breed again.
When he turned to AKC to collect information about this breed kennels, Robert Zoller was addressed to Chinook kennel, owned by the Seeleys. At that time Eva Seeley was ill and she had entrusted the provisional management of the kennel to a man called Dick Moulton. Zoller admired the Kotzebue Malamutes, characterized by strong uniformity, good posteriors, fine heads, muzzles and ears. However, Zoller thought that Chinook Malamutes were a bit too small and that some of them had bad front legs. Bob Zoller also saw Paul Voelker’s M’Loots, which he found very different from the Chinook Kotzebues. In Zoller’s opinion, the M’Loots were actually much bigger than the Kotzebues, they had good front legs, but lacked angulations and their long moving legs suggested a sort of stilted gait. After visiting Chinook kennel, Zoller was advised by Moulton to go and see a man called Dick Hinman, who was also a beeder of Alaskan Malamutes.
Zoller followed Moulton’s advice and in Dick Hinman’s kennel he met the two most beautiful Malamutes he had ever seen: Hinman's Alaska and Irwin's Gemo. To Zoller the two dogs outdid both the Kotzebues and the M’Loots in beauty. Delighted by what he had seen, Zoller decided to buy a puppy from the litter that Hinman had available at the moment. The sire was Hinman's Alaska. The puppy, Kayak Of Brookside, was very lively and Zoller and his wife Laura thought he needed to socialize with another Malamute puppy. Thus the Zollers, who were considering several “mates” for Kayak, purchased three puppies: Ch. Husky-Pak Mikya of Seguin, Ch. Apache Chief of Husky Pak and Ch. Arctic Storm of Husky-Pak. All of them were shown so as to be registered.
Zoller’s first Husky-Pak dogs were a mix of M'Loot and Hinman-Irwin, but Zoller had never forgotten the Seeleys’ dogs, so he searched for a Kotzebue to include him into his breeding program. His search led him to a pure Kotzebue called Toro of Bras Coupe.
Toro of Bras Coupe was crossed with Arctic Storm Of Husky-Pak and the combination of the M’Loot and Kotzebue strains was successful. The resulting litter consisted of six puppies, five of which became champions; Robert Zoller became a personality in the Malamute rings. These dogs were Ch. Cliquot of Husky-Pak, Ch. Cheyenne of Husky-Pak, Ch. Cochise of Husky-Pak, Ch. Comanche of Husky-Pak and Ch. Cherokee of Husky-Pak. One day Bob Zoller said that Ch. Cherokee of Husky-Pak was the best Alaskan Malamute he had ever had.
Thanks to Zoller’s success in crossing the M'Loot/Kotzebue/Hinman-Irwin strains, lots of other breeders chose similar mating combinations, though many of them preferred to cross M'Loots directly with Husky-Paks rather than use pure Kotzebues. Today most Alaskan Malamutes are the result of the M’Loot – Kotzebue (or Husky-Pak) mix, and the direction that the breed development has ever since taken owes a lot to Robert Zoller’s work and vision.

Reference:
Barbara A. Brooks e Sherry E. Wallis, "Alaskan Malamute - Yesterday and Today", Alpine, 1998.
Joan McDonald Brearley, This is the Alaskan Malamute, T.F.H., 1975.

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