Bagley Wright, a towering icon

On the wall, next to my desk, is a laminated copy of the Seattle Times Northwest section front page with the headline "Seattle's Towering Icon".  The large color photo in the feature story shows the Space Needle rising into an azure blue sky.  In front of the structure,  looking up into the heavens is Bagley Wright.  He was one of the original investors in the Space Needle and one of Seattle's most influential leaders during the 50 years that have passed since the Needle was built for the World's Fair.

When we were planning the kickoff of the Space Needle's 50 Anniversary Celebration this spring, I had the good fortune to have several long talks with Bagley Wright. He was a treasure trove of information and very gracious to the others who were involved at the inception. He was insistent that all of the great Seattle families who played a role were invited and recognized at the celebration. He didn't hesitate to say he would be there for the special event and was, in fact, the first to commit. Interestlingly, after that, on four different occasions, I received copies of this photo of his wife Jinny from when the Space Needle project began, with notes saying he thought we "would get a kick out of this picture." Obviously, he deeply loved his wife AND this photo. 

The photo was front and center in a position of prominence at our kickoff and Bagley smiled when he saw it. It was a glorious warm spring day and Bagley was basking in the light of a very proud moment for his family, his friends and his city.  The light has dimmed today as we learn that Bagley passed away of a heart attack overnight.  He was a great man...a consummate businessman, community leader and mentor to many.  He and Jinny are in our thoughts and hearts.  And as I look at the photo on my wall, it's clear to me that the headline is describing both of the images in the picture...the Space Needle that has become the indelible symbol for our city and Bagley Wright, the towering icon who made his mark on our community forever.  We miss him dearly.

Gloria's Trail

“Just close your eyes…listen to the wind blowing through the pines…smell the clean fresh air…feel the warmth of the sun on your face…and then hear the mountains saying ‘Thank you…Gloria.’”  Those were the words of Rick Johnson from the Idaho Conservation League (ICL) when about 150 of us gathered at the Osberg’s picturesque cabin on Newman Creek, near Ketchum, Idaho, recently to honor Gloria Moore Osberg for her notable contribution to the enjoyment of and the access to the mountains of southern Idaho by thousands of hikers.

In a virtually unprecedented act, the National Forest Service joined with the Idaho Conservation League and the Wood River Land Trust to name a trail after Gloria.  Not just any trail, mind you, but a 10.5 mile trail along a mountain ridge that offers spectacular 360 degree views of all the surrounding mountain ranges almost every step of the way.  It’s a beautiful trail that needs some “TLC” and the idea of naming it after such a great conservationist brought these three organizations together to make it happen.

Gloria is the author of two famous guides that are on the bookshelves of thousands of hikers and outdoor enthusiasts throughout the Pacific Northwest.  “Day Hiking near Sun Valley” came first and eventually it was joined by “Easy Hikes around Sun Valley”.  Gloria and some friends formed a hiking group in the 1970’s and it spawned the idea for the books.

These are guides that Gloria and her husband John (there is always a man behind a good woman) have painstakingly updated year after year.  Recently, Gloria gave the copyright for the “Day Hiking” guide to the ICL and insisted they keep all the proceeds to benefit wilderness conservation. She has done the same with her second book, “Easy Hikes”, making Gloria not only a motivational force for potential hikers, but also a philanthropist for the conservation cause.

A couple of months ago, John told us this special event was going to happen over the July 4^th weekend and it immediately became a must for us to attend.  John and Gloria have become very close friends over the past twenty years or so and the small dinner club of the four of us meet quite regularly for Chinese food and lively conversation.  John and I have known each other for over 30 years and we share a lot of the same views on life and the world situation.

Like my wife Jane, Gloria has her very distinct opinions on just about any subject.  And she doesn’t mince words.  When we first had dinner in Newport, Rhode Island, where I was working on an around the world sailing race that John had a boat in,  I remember clearly that Gloria took me to task on the subject sof politics and world affairs without reservation.  Not that we disagreed, it was just that she wanted me to understand how solid her point of view was.

Her work on the guide books for almost twenty five years has been stellar.  Gloria is meticulous in her details; thoughtful in her descriptions and passionate about the subject of the mountains.  She keeps the most complete and descriptive journals I’ve ever seen of the all the hikes and trips that she has taken.  Jane and I have accompanied them on some of Gloria’s scouting trips, taking measurements, altimeter readings and exploring trailhead parking lots.  No leaf is left unturned. 

Gloria has worked so closely with the Forest Service over the years that they have, on occasion, asked her to change, alter or even omit some hikes that have become too popular as a result of her guidebooks. Sometimes the forests and mountains just need a rest. Gloria knows that and she and the NFS have a very complementary relationship.

Gloria and John are enjoying life at their cabin in the mountains and their home in suburban Seattle.  They are a wonderfully warm and gentle couple.  The Trail Naming event felt just like them.  It was a perfect summer afternoon in the mountains…blue sky, hot sun. cool shade.  Family and friends came from all corners.  The food was great and the pies were homemade ( I have a soft spot for pie), although, in truth, they were made by a close friend and I missed Gloria’s own sumptuous berry pies.  Sitting on the front deck of their cabin with a piece of pie and a cold beverage and looking at the spectacular mountain view is definitely very close to heaven. I can’t do it often enough.

Wonderful things were said that day by the ICL, the Wood River Land Trust that has been a passion for Gloria and John and by the Forest Service.  All were welcome and much deserved.  But it was Gloria’s grandson, who got my vote.  He was asked by Gloria to deliver her remarks and he nailed it.  He spoke her words, precisely, from memory and when he said, “This is such a special and precious honor for me (Gloria Osberg),” even the chipmunk running through woods stopped and listened.  Gloria’s proud smile dimmed the sun.

Some people are passionate.  Some are committed. Others are compassionate and opinionated.  Gloria Osberg is all those things.  The naming of the Osberg Ridgeline Trail is bigger than the Sawtooth Mountains.  It’s bigger than Idaho.  It’s a testament to one person's vision and perseverance and the impact one person can have on the world.  I am proud to have hiked and sailed and skied and travelled and eaten Marion berry pie with Gloria.  She is a wonder of this world.

Chihuly Garden Exhibition is official...at last!

Today’s is the day we’ve been waiting for. It’s been so hard to hold back the hurrahs but we’ve learned not to take anything for granted in Seattle’s process of public approvals. The Mayor has signed the lease and the Master Use Permit is approved. NOW we can begin to build the world’s most comprehensive exhibition of the magnificent glass art of Dale Chihuly. In spite of the open government process unique to Seattle and those who heard about it and thought they deserved the use of the space more, the Chihuly Garden Exhibition will open in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our city’s coming out at the 1962’s world’s Fair.

This approval has been the longest 90-day process imaginable. We had the idea and began planning in late 2008. Throughout 2009, we met with Seattle Center, planned amongst ourselves and developed a timeline that would give us some breathing room to be open well in advance of the World’s Fair 50th anniversary in April 2012. In February 2010, we ran our design through the City’s design commission and then in March, we announced to the media the intention to place an exhibition of world renowned artist Dale Chihuly’s work on the south site of the Fun Forest amusement park next to the Space Needle. The idea was a great one from the beginning. It seemed like a slam dunk…a no-brainer. We made the salient benefits clear from the very beginning:

• There would be no cost whatsoever to the city of Seattle
• This would be a world-class exhibition of Dale Chihuly’s art that, by independent analysis, would bring 400,000 new visitors a year to view it.
• Over the life of a five-year lease with three possible extensions, the city could realize $24 million from tax and lease payments
• And over 400 family wage jobs would be generated throughout the construction period and beyond

After public meetings, more analysis, strong community outreach and extensive meetings with the City Council and the Mayor’s Office, we added:

• a $2 million dollar children’s play area in the north Fun Forest site,
• expanded opportunity for other artists to be displayed around the Seattle Center grounds,
• a major arts program for the schools that includes bus transportation to and from Seattle Center
• and assembled a group of deserving art-related community groups as partners that would benefit from the project.

Now some 16-months since first approaching the Design Commission, there is simply no way to count the endless hours that have been spent to get us to this point. It’s been like an expedition. When things are this intense and often stressful and the conditions are constantly changing, even the team starts to fray a bit around the edges. But the best always come out on top. Many, many people have played important roles in this process. The family of Howard S. Wright, who built and became the owner of the Space Needle, have joined with Dale Chihuly and his studio to bring an attraction of major magnitude to our city and its heart at Seattle Center.

There is a book in the happenings around this project over the past many months but I’m too happy to write it now. Even with the on-line nay-sayers, the foes of glass art, the biased vitriolic media, those who thought their ideas for the use of the space were the only answer, those who used the process to get their own way on the coat-tails of this project and those, including the mayor, who, now after throwing roadblock after roadblock in front of us, claim it as their own, we have achieved our objective and we’re proud and happy with the outcome. We’ve started something that will make our city, region and, in some respects, the world a more vibrant, exciting place. Whew!

All things Royal...

The buzz in London was getting louder when the date for the Royal Wedding was announced. We were there visiting friends for some pre-Olympic reconnaissance. “Official” souvenirs were being very tightly controlled. After asking in every place imaginable, we found the only item that was immediately available in a small Windsor shop across from the castle. It was a post card of the Royal Couple’s engagement photo, which you can see below. We mailed a couple back for the postmarks and brought a stack home for our friends. This was the beginning of the Royal Wedding adventure.

It was really my mother who was enamored by all things Royal. She watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren in the movie or William’s grandmother, if you’re not keeping track.) Next it was Grace Kelly’s rise to royalty through marriage and then Sarah Ferguson (you can’t just say Fergie anymore) and, of course, Diana. Mom followed the royal exploits through pre-Hello/People magazines in the 50’s and 60’s. And then when television turned from black-and-white to color, she never missed a report or special about European royalty.

Some of my mother’s devotion must have rubbed off on me because it wasn’t too hard for Jane to talk me into seeing THE wedding somehow. We started by hoping to be in London with our friends there but that just didn’t work out. Once we scrapped that idea then we started looking for a way to bring it close to home. Finally, I decided we could celebrate Jane’s birthday (She blocks out the whole month of April) and the Royal Wedding at the place where I shook hands with both the Queen and Prince Philip. They were in Victoria, BC, on my birthday (not “for” but “on”) during the Queen’s Jubilee. We were staying at the Empress and when they arrived for tea, we were right next to the entrance and they both “touched” the crowd, including me. I snapped these two pictures just after my encounter.

“Rise and Shine with the Royals” at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria was the idea of Theresa Dickinson, head of Food & Beverage there. She’s from Cambridge, England, and she told me that when she first voiced the thought, there was a somewhat quizzical look from management. But they did it anyway and what a success it was. The event sold out quickly and was even expanded to accommodate as many “wedding crashers” as possible. They came from coast-to-coast in Canada and many from the US as well. It quickly became THE place to see the wedding in all of North America.

Festivities in the famous Empress Tea Room were scheduled to begin at 2am but the crowd began to gather at 1:30. The invitation encouraged you to wear your pj’s and Empress Bath Robe, which many did, but there were quite a number of women dressed to the nine’s for the wedding, including very elegant hats and “fascinators”. I had never heard of a “fascinator” until Kate Middleton was photographed wearing one. My British friend referred to it as a “bit of fluff” in the hair and that’s a pretty apt description.

Men were definitely in the minority. In fact, I’ve never been in a room filled with so many women in their pj’s and bath robes and probably never will be again. The few of us sprinkled in amongst the hundreds of women offered a wide disparity in our reactions to the wedding. Many found it an ideal opportunity to catch one of those great “opera naps” (sit up straight and don’t drool) after enjoying breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, it was excellent. A full English breakfast including great bangers, bacon, kippers, baked beans, fried bread and pastries with eggs cooked to order was a hit with everyone. And as an added benefit, we got to eat on the Queen’s china, which had only been used once before at her Jubilee celebration.

In my opinion, the wedding was a 10. It could not have been better. I was texting with our English friends throughout and the tears came at about the same times…the wedding vows, the hymn written specially for the ceremony sung by the children’s choir and when they played the UK National Anthem “God Save the Queen”, we all stood up and sang just like we were there in the Abbey. (I noticed that the Queen wasn’t singing, but then I guess that makes sense, when you think about it. Who, me?)

Unless we could have stepped outside and watched the carriage go by, it could have not been a more perfect event. I thought for sure they would have some professional photographers there but Jane didn’t take any chances. She almost filled a 2GB photo card with pictures OF THE TELEVISION SCREEN! Unbelievable! She even got “the kiss”, although it was the second one. It came at 5:38am according to the camera and everyone was very happy. As the party broke up (we all got late checkouts from the hotel), Jane and I stopped for a quick photo with the Royal Couple. The man who took it for us had just purchased his official ceremonial, post-marked Royal Wedding stamps, so that required one more queue to stand in but I think my mother would have been quite pleased to have the souvenir.

I was tweeting throughout the ceremony but my last one said how I felt about the evening. “ Sealed with a kiss…ok, two. Well orchestrated. Well performed. Well done. A happy moment in our troubled world. Thank you, Wills and Kate.” Just two days later, things took another turn with the demise of the demonic man who started our troubles in the new century. But I hope the Royal Wedding will stand on its own in history as a time when we all came together to celebrate happiness, tradition and life. As my British friend said afterward, “One thing is for sure. We know how to put on a big event.” Amen to that. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

The best cup of tea...

The tea is black and very strong. Gombu always brought it in a tinfoil ball. Each time we met over the past 30 years or so, he would bring me a “ball of tea”. He liked the big Hershey chocolate bars that I gave him and we both enjoyed exchanging these small gifts.

Sherpa Nawang Gombu, the first person to climb Mt. Everest twice, died over the weekend and, yet another of the people who have had great influence on my life is gone. We met through our long-time friend, famed mountaineer Lou Whittaker. Lou and Gombu had a newly established relationship with JanSport backpacks and I was the corporate liaison from Cummins Engine Company that owned the budding backpack company when we first met on Mt. Rainier.

Gombu’s English was not that good then and, frankly, not much better when we were together last on the Mountain a year or so ago. But communicating was never a problem. His big broad smile told you very quickly that things were fine and, if he scowled, you knew something was wrong. Even better, he would make it right very quickly and there would be that smile again.

Rainier Mountaineering guide service relished Gombu’s summer visits. He came as often as he could and would stay as long as time and weather would allow. He was the guide’s guide…an energizer bunny of sorts…who never ran out of stamina or oxygen. I still smile at the film of Gombu’s ascent of Mt. Everest with Lou’s brother, Jim. The first thing he does when they get on top is light up a cigarette…not PC, for sure, but definitely a testament to his fortitude.

Fortunately, I got to travel with him and Lou in the Himalayas. Those mountains were his home, like the Cascades and Olympics are for us. He loved it there and was in his element. He was a major player in opening the trekking and climbing routes that are now flourishing in the Himalayas. Sir Edmund Hillary gave great praise to Gombu and his family for their efforts at mountain conservation when we were working on the 50th Anniversary of Hillary’s climb of Everest.

During the 1980’s and 90’s, I put together an annual event called the Mountain Summit. It was hosted on Mt. Rainier, at Snowbird and Sundance and Tokyo too. All the top mountaineers of the day from Reinhold Messner to Tim McCartney Snape and Ed Viesturs came together to talk about access issues in the mountains of the world. With the possible exception of Rick Ridgeway, Gombu was the most diminutive guy there. But his presence was big and when he talked, everyone listened. In one of the sessions, we got into a discussion about taking care of the mountains for future generations. Gombu spoke up, after a little prodding, and said, “If you love the mountains, they will love you.” That pretty much said it all.  The rest of the discussion was just rhetoric.

Nawang Gombu was a great man and a great friend. His legend and his memory will live on. His obituary says he was 79 but he had the heart of a teenager. News reports are calling him a "Tiger of the Snow", which may be true but I think it would embarrass him a bit. What is for certain is that he was a leader among his people, the Sherpa, and a highly respected ambassador of the mountains he loved. I miss him already as I sip his tea, which I will now use quite sparingly, and think of our quiet times together high in the snow. I know he’s still climbing.

Encore

Today is the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated.  Last year, I posted my recollections of that day for the first time in this blog.  My memories have not changed.  They may even be a little more vivid.  I'm re-posting that piece.  It hasn't changed in the past year but I may have...and so may you. Read it, if you like.  Martin Luther King made me look at our world differently.  Out of those troubled times, he made me stronger. He made our country stronger.

http://extremedanmc.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-5the-day-after.html

Speaking of the Final Four

Tonight’s Final Four match-up between Butler University and University of Connecticut should be a great game. I was raised on Indiana Basketball and, as far as I’m concerned, Butler was the real winner last year and now deserves to take the title home. Unfortunately, deserving to win and actually winning in basketball, especially this level of basketball, do not always go together. In any event, I’ll be there cheering on the Butler Bulldogs until the final buzzer.

But today, I’m thinking about a different Final Four on a day that came close to changing our country in a very dramatic way. It was a Monday just like this one in Seattle, cool and cloudy. My colleague picked me up in his van at about 11am as we headed for the airport and a client trip to Austin, Texas. He had the radio tuned to a news station and, as we drove to the airport, we heard the first report that President Reagan had been shot coming out a hotel in Washington, DC.

We cringed as we thought that March 30, 1981 would be yet another of those days indelibly branded into our psyche’s forever. Until that moment, all I had been thinking about was getting to Austin in time to watch the Indiana Hoosiers take on North Carolina in Philadelphia for their second national championship under coach Bobby Knight.

A significant aside to the game and the shooting was that the President’s attack was covered by Ted Turner’s 9-month-old television experiment called Cable News Network, now CNN. Never before did we have such instant, in-depth coverage of a breaking news event, much of it directly from the scene. You literally couldn’t turn it off. I watched the whole basketball game from my hotel room, switching back and forth between it and CNN’s coverage of the shooting aftermath. What an amazing advance in broadcast news…one that has changed television forever.

Fortunately, we arrived in Austin in ample time to get checked in and find some carry out before the tip-off. And more importantly, both events of that day ended happily, for me at least. President Reagan made a healthy recovery and the Hoosiers beat North Carolina 63 to 50. It did not become a day that “will live in infamy” in our lives. But it’s one that I remember quite vividly, along with the huge Tex-Mex burrito that I ate in my room while watching the game.

Tonight the Butler Bulldogs will carry the flag of all those small schools that are populated with very talented and intelligent student athletes who deserve to be recognized on a national basis. GO BULLDOGS!!!