Despite the scrutiny applied to George W. Bush's life this election season, one small chapter has largely escaped attention. In an episode he has discussed with a few friends but not biographers, Mr. Bush spent the summer of 1974 working for a young airline-and-construction business in Alaska, during the oil-boom days when construction on the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline was just beginning.

Bob Heath, who would bring him here to work in the noisy, chaotic airport offices of the young company, Alaska International Industries, recalls receiving a letter from an executive at a Houston construction company asking about a summer job for Mr. Bush, then 27 and halfway through two years at Harvard Business School.

Mr. Heath, who was vice president for finance at Alaska International, says he called the Houston executive with one question: ''Will he work?''

Assured that Mr. Bush would, Mr. Heath replied, ''Ship him up.''

''We had never heard of George Bush,'' Mr. Heath said recently. ''Didn't have a clue.'' But Mr. Bush was a college graduate who had decided to pursue a business career, ''and we could use all we could get our hands on.''