Betty Parker | 1927–2016

by Barbara J. Marquam

Betty liked to stay active: She climbed her first mountain with the Mazamas in 1948 when she heard a girlfriend asking for a partner and then finished her 16 major Cascade Peaks in about three years, and received the 16 Peaks Award in 1952. She took Basic School in 1950 (the first year the Mazamas had a school) and again around 1979 with David Turville whose mother, a friend, had died. Betty assisted on climbs and became such good friends with climb leader Charlie Jensen and his wife that she drove them to Mazama Annual Banquets after she retired. She worked for the same insurance company all of her life and rose as high as a woman could at that company. Her parents moved from Portland to Tigard in 1937, she started to ride in Cycle Oregon at 60, and rode about 12 years before quitting.

She was devoted to the Old-Log Lodge and was on the Lodge Committee from 1955-57. The membership gave their money for building a new lodge when it burned (1958) rather than to a self-owned clubroom fund. She was also on the Executive Council in 1964, the Central Mountain Rescue in 1953–4, Membership Promotion from 1954–55, Outreach 1961–67, Publicity 1956, and Youth Activities Committee in 1961. She was friends with the Maas’ and would drive down to the Tillamook Burn where Al Maas, a former Mazama climb leader and President, was logging. They would hike together to get in shape for climbing, and one of his buddies proposed marriage to her. She wasn’t ready to settle down, but remained life-long friends with him even though he moved to Canada. Later, she fell for a Mazama, but both remained single.

She also liked to attend Mazama Outings: In fact, one of her funniest stories relates to a Teton Outing. A fellow Mazama wanted badly to climb the Grand Teton, but had ripped his pants—a big deal in those days—and figured he had no chance. She loaned him her pants—she was a tall woman—and thus forfeited her climb. He succeeded, but she never got another chance.

When she turned 80, 150 people showed up at her birthday party. She was amazed, but secretly pleased. She was good friends with the Kellers, knew Grace (Tigard) Houghten (her Girl Scout Leader) and her brother, who was still playing golf and going to the theater in his 90s. She had known the Gerdings and old-timers like Clark Rhoades, Ray Witcher, John Scott, Don Onthank, the Franciscos and the Leutholds. She bragged about bringing Chris Mackert, 5-times Mazama President, into the Mazamas. Also, when she was older, she bought annual tickets to several events that occurred at night, after dark.

I first met Betty after she retired and drove her customized Ford van to a Mazama Hart Mountain Outing where we took out fence. She was generous with her vehicle, and often drove a group of people to trailheads. She had done all of the work on the van herself, and lived in it when she drove cross-country. She loved young people and at one time had four college students visiting her at her home. Her nephew, who came out West to go to school, proposed to his current wife under her Christmas tree. As an archives' volunteer, I met her again, and did an oral history interview on her. Also, when she was no longer driving in the dark, my husband (Tom Dinsmore) and I would take her to the Broadway Rose Theater. We will miss her ready laugh and hearty hand-shake.

Gilbert "Gil" Staender | 1930–2016

by Doug Couch
In 1940 when Gilbert “Gil” Staender was nine years old, his uncle pulled him out of an orphanage in wartime Germany and put him on a ship for New York where he reunited with his father. Five years later, in 1945 his family was living in Portland and Gil joined the Mazamas. He remained a member for 71 years until his death on August 27, 2016.

A climb leader with the Mazamas, Gil summited Mt. Hood over fifty times as well as climbing throughout the Northwest. In the 1950s he and his wife Vivian pioneered rock climbing at Smith Rock, traveling there from their home in Lake Oswego. Many of their first ascents at Smith Rock are commemorated in the ridge named for them.

In the 1960s they traveled to the Brooks Range in Alaska above the Arctic Circle four times, staying for weeks each trip. Their purpose was more than just getting away from it all. They collected and cataloged plants and animals to be analyzed for the residue of pesticides that had permeated the atmosphere even in that remote region. The Mazamas helped support their research with grants and were rewarded with a series of evening programs featuring Gil’s photography.

In 1969 Gil and Vivian embarked on perhaps their greatest adventure. After much research they sold their house in Lake Oswego and returned to the Brooks Range to spend an entire year in a log cabin they would build there. The twelve by fourteen foot cabin was stout enough and tight enough to get them through a winter with temperatures dropping to 50 below zero. At the end of their year in the north they loaded up a rubber raft they had brought with them for just that purpose and floated downriver for eleven days to the nearest native village where they could catch a plane back to civilization.

Encroaching urbanization had been one spur behind their year in the wilderness. Before leaving they had sold their home, stored their belongings with Mazamas Nick and Kay Dodge, and purchased 160 acres north of Sisters. Upon returning they spent three years living on their property in a tent while constructing a stone house far off the electric and phone grid. From the beginning their intent was to deed that house and land, Wildhaven, to the Nature Conservancy.

Eventually Gil moved back to Portland and took a job at REI, first at the Jantzen Beach store and then at Tualatin. His career teaching in Portland and Sisters showed through as much as his unique expertise with anything related to climbing or camping. Following that period Gil returned to Central Oregon, living near Camp Sherman until moving to Hospice.

Gil was a genuine pioneer and adventurer, a wonderful storyteller, and warm host. He will be deeply missed.