In Memorial
Matt
Thomas
June 9, 1956 – March 19, 2000
Matt thomas had a passion for rivers
and friendships. The combination of
these two traits led to an abundance of
memorable times on just about every
runnable western river. The Colorado River
through Grand Canyon was his favorite.
Matt and I met on a 1984 Grand trip,
Matt's first. The Canyon captured his heart,
bringing him bac seven more times. We married in 1990 and rafting together
became the best part of our lives. We ran many rivers, but the Grand was
always special. Matt and I
shared our love for it on trips in 1991, 1997 and
1999. Matt was a longtime member of Grand Canyon River Guides. I would
like to thank our many friends and family for their generous contributions
to gcrg in Matt's memory. We all miss you, Matt. The river gods
are with you on your downstream run.
Love,
Michael Archenhold
We at grand canyon river guides were
saddened to hear of the passing of
Michael Archenhold, an active
member of gcrg since 1997. Michael's
personal notes over the years and his
continued support of our organization were
always appreciated. Gcrg is extremely
honored to be a recipient of a significant ira
distribution from the estate of Michael
Archenhold. In doing so, Michael has bolstered
gcrg's financial health thereby allowing us to
continue to pursue our mission of protecting
Grand Canyon and the river experience. Thank
you Michael. We will miss you! Our thoughts
are with your family and friends.
Tad Nichols
Tadito, the tadpole, e.t. There he is in his
shorts, balanced on one leg, his other
footresting against his knee—a stork
with a cup of coffee—camera on tripod beside
him. He's gazing out across the river,
silhouetted against a deep blue sky full of
tatting. It is just after dawn and he is
waiting. Waiting for sun to rise and fulfill
what he demands in a perfect photograph.
Waiting while he drinks in the beauty that
surrounds him, drinks his coffee and sighs
with contentment when the river sighs. He
lifts his left hand to twiddle the hair at his
cowlick—an unconscious gesture of contemplation
and idle happiness he's had most of
his life. He is euphoric! This day is the
perfect day to be at his favorite camp in Glen
Canyon, on the bar above Hidden Passage.
And that is how I will always see him.
To have a friend, a buddy, a pal for sixty
years is a rare thing. To have one lead the
way to a place that would grip the rest of our
lives, is a gift beyond calculation. Tad took
me to the Colorado river and its canyons, as
he did many. Tad taught me how to photograph
those places, as he did others—though none as
prefectly as he. And maybe he didn't know it
but I learned how to “feel” light from Tad;
light that could never be photographed. Yet, it
must have reached out and touched him as
well.
The proof lies—thank God it lies—within
our grasp. A year ago, at this very time, his
long awaited book Glen Canyon—Images of a
Lost World, was published. Every photograph
in it is proof of what he “felt” about that lost
Bill Beer
Bill beer made his mark in Grand Canyon
in 1955, when he and friend John
Daggett swam the river clad in life
jackets and rubber shirts, towing army
surplus river bags. Daggett was nearly killed
when he was dragged beneath President Harding
rock, but the two persevered in what Beer
later termed, “a cheap vacation that got a little
out of hand.”
The next year Beer and Daggett tried rafting.
Several miles above Phantom, with a dead
motor and two broken oars, they jumped overboard,
Bill's hound dog Sam barking furiously,
and towed the raft the remaining miles to
Phantom.
In the next two years Beer joined Dock
Marston, twice piloting ChrisCrafts through
Grand Canyon. Tired of his reputation as “one
of those crazy guys who swam the Colorado”
Beer pulled up stakes and moved to the Virgin
Islands, where he made a living for the next
thirty years piloting the charter yacht True
Love. His passion in later years was flying his
ultralight aircraft. Wherever he went,
whatever he did, he had fun, and he had more
of it than anyone around him.
Beer finally came back to the Canyon on
a commercial trip in 1985, then in 1994
ran a private trip down the Colorado with
his family. At a subsequent Guides Training
Seminar, Beer narrated his hilarious film
of the swim, introducing his story and his
joy to a whole new generation of boaters.
His enthusiasm, optimism, and contagious
laugh infected all who met him.
Last month Bill Beer, 7 1, was flying his
ultralight near Kayenta. A witness on the
ground saw the plane's nose rise briefly,
then plunge. “It looked like Bill fell forward
onto the control bar,” said Bill's wife Sue.
“He was ready to pull the ballistics chute,
but he didn't.” A heart attack or a stroke are
the most likely suspects. His last sight was
the spiraling kaleidoscope of the red rock
desert he loved.
We will miss Bill Beer's unquenchable spirit.
Quotes
from Bill Beer
A great part of the happiness
of any human being is
measured by their accomplishments
and nothing
else. And accomplishment
is not defined by somebodywater transfer
programs as an alte
else, it's defined by yourself.
You find an objective,
you set a goal, you achieve
it, and you're proud of
yourself, and you're happy.
I take pride in what we did
in the Grand Canyon. I
think we did a damned fine
job of doing what we set out
to do. Not a very significant
boatman's quarterly review page 1 1
You play the hand that's dealt you. That's a
favorite saying of mine. But I think my only
philosophy of life, and I try to teach it to my
children—I think I've succeeded in teaching
them—is “What's to be afraid of?”
Fear is a healthy thing, of course, when it's
protecting you from something you ought not to
do. But fear is something that comes from
inside. It's almost always fear of the unknown.
You're not afraid if you know what's going to
happen, in most instances. But a lot of people
create too much fear for no reason, they're
afraid to do something. I don't know whether
they're afraid to fail, or they're afraid they're
going to get hurt, or they're afraid they're
going to lose money or some other thing. But I
think that you examine all these alternatives,
try to be as accurate in predicting it, as
careful in calculating what you are going to be
able to do and what you're not going to be able
to do, what the consequences are, and then
damn the torpedoes—Go!
I want to do something, I find out everything
I can about it, and then—Why be afraid?—Go! If
the other guy can do it, you can do it. It makes
life much more fun.
You're evangelists. You're taking the world
down into that temple of ours, and you're not
destroying it. And someday the world's gonna
recognize you for what you are. But I want
you to know that right now, I do…
And I see that you have problems—I live
in a parallel world. I run a boat through a
national park, and I have the Coast Guard on
my back all the time. And they're good guys,
these bureaucrats, every one of 'em. But
they're bureaucrats. And you know, dogs
bark, and bureaucracies grow…
So I would say this only—Respect yourselves.
You've got a lot of trouble coming, I
predict this… But if you want to, you've got
the resources—and I see a lot of power and a
lot of clout here. There's no organization
like this—no national park in any country
has an organization with the efficiency and
the intelligence that you guys have. I'm
astounded at the quality of people here. And I
say to you—if you don't want to use it, that's
up to you—but don't underestimate yourselves.
Marc Reisner
Marc reisner, writer and conservationist
who wrote the seminal text on
the West's perennial water wars,
died July 2 1st of cancer. He was 5 1 years
old.
Marc Reisner wrote and lectured extensively
on environmental issues, but was best
known for his 1986 book Cadillac Desert, an
angry indictment of water depletion in the
American West. The book was a wake-up call
about destructive dam-building, pork barrel
water subsidies, and the general frittering
away of the West's scarce water resources.
In 1979 he began the research on water
policy that ultimately resulted in Cadillac
Desert. That book was a finalist for the
national Book Critics Circle Award in 1986,
and the basis for a $2.8 million documentary
film series which was first shown on pbs in
1997. Cadillac Desert was ranked by the
Modern Library as 6 1st among the 1 0 0 most
notable nonfiction English language works
published in the 2 0th century.
In recent years, Marc Reisner devoted
much of
his time to promoting solutions to California's
environmental problems. He was a consultant
to the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's
Associations on removing antiquated dams that
were interfering with anadromous fish runs.
He also co-founded the Ricelands Habitat
partnership, a coalition of farmers and
conservationists that worked to promote
environmentally friendly agriculture,
improve waterfowl habitat on crop land and
minimize the negative impact on fisheries
caused by water diversions.
Marc Reisner managed the Vidler Water
Co., which promoted environmentally benign
groundwater storage and rnative to dams.
