This isn't Gundelberg, either
You cannot hope to properly appreciate the little mountain
essays to follow unless you first come to terms with the character of its chief
protagonist, Gundelberg/Keller. (That is
too cumbersome; hereafter G/K will be referred to as “Bob”.) Consequently, in this “Preface” I will undertake
the spectacularly daunting task of introducing you to “Bob”. Not the complete Bob, of course; I doubt if
even he could accomplish that. I will
attempt to sketch the mountain Bob, and even that will not be easy. I want you to be able to say “I’ll bet he did
_________”, rather than “he did WHAT?”, at least once in a while.
The bare facts are easily related. Bob grew up in the Tacoma area, in the shadow
of Mt Rainier. He attended the
University of Puget Sound, which also is glowered over by our State
Volcano. It may be that 22 years of
constant scrutiny from a stern pile of volcanic rocks played a role in shaping
his later attitude toward mountains (and life); that can never
established. All I know is that Mt. Rainier
pervaded his life; he talked about it constantly, climbed it several times,
hiked its circumference at least once and, one suspects, never completely
emerged from its shadow.
At any rate, Bob left UPS and enrolled at the University of
Chicago as a degree candidate in theology, and left some years later with a
Ph.D. in history. He taught for several
years at Olympic College, Bremerton; history, for sure, but also mountaineering
and who knows what else? He started a
mountaineering library there, and probably climbed all the nearby peaks. He was content at Olympic College but was
forced to leave after a few years owing to an unfortunate misunderstanding
regarding a nuclear submarine. However Bremerton’s loss was Bellingham’s
gain, because Bob became a Founding Father of Fairhaven College.
I will not attempt to explain Fairhaven College, other than
to say that it is a freeform, do-your-own-thing, ungraded sort of place that for
a student could be the perfect educational environment or absolute disaster,
depending on one’s level of ambition and maturity. Bob fit right in. He taught courses in history, yes, but also
law, politics and religion. He was
famous for an offering titled, simply, “Death”.
He taught “Mountaineering”, which was as much about outdoor ethics as
actual climbing. (I helped with that one). He once taught a seminar on “Chicago”, and
took his students there. He spent a
quarter disproving the existence of Bigfoot.
And so forth.
When asked “What do you teach, Dr. Keller?” he would often
answer “Truth”
(To be continued)
(To be continued)
Never his equal again.
ReplyDeleteGlad to read these again.
ReplyDelete