Have you talked to Bruce lately?
Oh yes. I visited with Bruce earlier this year in Corvallis. I was there for lunch with him and his wife. You know how it is. I’d like to get together with him, but both of us seem to have our agendas, and consequently we don’t get together as often as I’d like.
I see him a couple of times a year. I know him really through my mother because they’re in the same church.
Is that right, the Episcopal Church?
I see him at church several times a year. He is always great to talk to.
He is one of the finest individuals I’ve ever met. One of the high points in my experience at Crater Lake was the visit of Russ Grater to Crater Lake. Russ Grater was from the Washington office and he was the chief of interpretation for the park service. He was a very, very knowledgeable person. I remember Dick Brown saying that he, Russ, could take a bird feather and build a mountain. You know, I’ve often thought about that and thought how in the devil would I go about doing that? But he did, at our staff meeting, talks with us, went out on walks, and this sort of thing. I had the pleasure of his accompanying me on a walk out to Discovery Point. He made suggestions and this sort of thing and I certainly count that as one of the high points of my work experience at Crater Lake. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word and was not overbearing. He was very helpful. At the same time, he was also a very humble person. He was a real credit to the park service.
Was the Discovery Point walk an official program that naturalists gave?
We had two walks when I arrived. As I recall, during the high season we’d have one up Garfield Peak in the morning and a different naturalist on the Discovery Point Trail in the afternoon. That’s my recollection. Now, I could be wrong there, but it seems to me we had two walks a day during the high season, which was probably mid-July and on into August.
