Farewells

Collin Peter McKnight

Collin Peter McKnight passed away April 23, 2004, due to complications following heart surgery. He was born August 12, 1975, in Murray, Utah. Collin lived life to the fullest, despite his heart condition. He was an avid kayaker, skier, Grand Canyon boatman, and extreme sports enthusiast. He fished in Alaska and worked as a brine shrimper on the Great Salt for eleven years. Collin was charming, generous, kind, and loved by everyone he met. He was witty and wise. He brought laughter to everyone around him. We are all inspired by his free spirit.
A celebration of Collin’s life was held on April 27th. In lieu of a formal funeral, Collin’s many friends and family members gathered together to share their memories of happy, funny, and adventurous times with Collin.
Collin was only 29 years old; far too young to die, but wise beyond his years. He began his river running career with Colorado River & Trail Expeditions in Green River, Utah, at the tender age of 17. He worked for Hatch River Expeditions in the Grand Canyon. His wit, humor, love of the outdoors, and loyalty to the friends who shared his passions will be greatly missed.

Vicki Mackay

Juan in a Million or The Only Juan Here is Gone

On June 2, 2004 at age 88, Juan Valadez Delgadillo, the “Clown Prince of Arizona eateries,” died after working up to the last day, “just as everyone knew would happen.”
Juan was born in Amarillo, Texas, while his parents were driving to Arizona from Mexico. During the Depression, Juan “began playing trombone in the Hank Beck Orchestra, helping the family stay in town. Later, his brothers and sisters formed the Delgadillo Orchestra, which traveled Route 66 in Arizona.” Juan noticed that an outhouse on his property was receiving a lot of use from train workers and Ford dealership customers from across Route 66. He thought that his popular corner lot might be a good spot for another kind of refreshment—an ice cream shop. Dairy Cream told him that Seligman, Arizona would not provide enough business, so in March, 1953 Juan received a franchise from Snow Cap. The family built the landmark Drive-In of scrap lumber with their own hands from wood Juan collected while working on the railroad. They celebrated a 50th anniversary last summer (bqr, Fall 2003).
After i-40 bypassed Seligman in 1978, Juan and Angel, his younger brother and town barber, formed the Historic Route 66 Association to promote and preserve the “Mother Road.” Breathing new life into the longest remaining stretch of the historic highway, visitors from all over the world, including many a hungry river runner, made the Snow Cap a must-stop experience, as much for icon Juan and his antics as for the food. Taking out using the Diamond Creek Road and heading east, Colorado River boaters with that post-trip-lack-of-dairy-fixation needing an ice cream almost invariably stopped at Delgadillo’s. You also got dead chicken, cheeseburgers with cheese, hamburgers without ham (except for Juan’s), delicious malts, and enough laughs to invigorate even the grumpiest shuttle drivers.
Since Juan and the Snow Cap have been such a part of boaters’ lives, in 1999 gcrg invited Juan to the Guides Training Seminar (bqr, Spring 1999). We intended to make him an honorary member and proclaimed a “Juan Delgadillo Lunch Day,” complete with framed certificates. Immediately after Juan and sons Robert and John and daughter Cece arrived, we were doubled-over with laughter as the entire family had us in hysterics. They turned the tables, by taking over and grilling burgers and dogs for 200+ smiling Delgadillo fans. It turned out they honored us by closing the Snow Cap for the day (Juan said “we just can’t have anybody running it”) and traveling to the gts to cook, serve, and clown around for and with us. My sides still hurt thinking about it.
Grand Canyon River Guides and river runners everywhere extend our condolences to Mary, Juan’s wife of 51 years, the kids, and the entire Delgadillo familia. After a short closing, the kids have reopened Delgadillo’s Snow Cap to keep Juan’s legacy and jokes alive. A “Juan in a Million” celebration on July 31 included the Delgadillo Orchestra, still with plenty of saxophones, but missing that former trombone player on lead guitar. Stop on by, eat there and get gas, try the one-of-a-kind chorizo burger, and have a chuckle and a malt; Juan’s spirit is definitely still there.

R.I. Pollo

Bob Sharp

Daredevil Bob, eldest of the first 100, goes on his last exploration

Robert Sharp, a world-renowned geologist who revolutionized modern earth and planetary science, died on May 25, 2004, at the age of 92. He received America’s highest scientific award, the National Medal of Science, in 1989. The Christmas, 1958 issue of Sports Illustrated included him in its profile of former football stars who had gone on to have significant careers. In 1937, he spent six weeks exploring the Grand Canyon as part of a systematic study of its geology, on the last river trip to run Lava Cliff Rapid prior to its inundation by Lake Mead.
Sharp was a 26-year-old Ph.D. student at Harvard when he was invited to participate in the 1937 Carnegie Institute of Washington-California Institute of Technology expedition. While he felt he was not the best choice for the science at hand, Sharp was a protégé of the trip’s organizer, Ian Campbell, and he was young and strong. He also had some sculling experience on the Charles River, and he later realized Campbell may have had the laughable notion that this would make him a potential backup boatman.
It was a formative experience, and Sharp’s athleticism served him well. Geologist Jack Stark, in an illustrated doggerel he prepared in honor of the trip, penned:
Next the baby of the crew
Robert Sharp of Harvard U
Climbed so “fiercely” that his shoes lost every hob
He would leap from crag to crag
“Firm not brutal” like a stag
Till he won deservedly the title “Daredevil Bob”
Sharp kept detailed journals, making notes on his geological work, daily highlights, and interesting bits of news (particularly football scores) gleaned from the short-wave radio. The contrast of world events with Canyon life was just as marked in 1937 as it is today:
I was successful in contacting the Canyon by radio. Learned that Mussolini had agreed to remove soldiers and volunteers from Spain. Full moon has been simply beautiful the last two nights. Ran across an old asbestos mine near “diabase” sill in Algonkian this afternoon.
Meeting Buzz Holmstrom, on November 20 at the mouth of Diamond Creek, warranted over a page in Sharp’s journal, including a detailed physical description of both Buzz and his boat. When interviewed in 1995, Sharp still remembered the day with great clarity: “He was a guy just bubbling with enthusiasm for his experiences, for the fact that he’d been able to do it… [Head boatman Frank] Dodge was obviously very much impressed with Buzz—well, we all were. In five minutes he was part of the gang.”
In the same interview, Sharp noted that of the countless field trips he made, it was the best of his life, with “adventure, some danger, camping. Superb. It was exploration, and exploration is always fun.”
Sharp’s 1937 trip memorabilia is archived at the Northern Arizona University Cline Library in Flagstaff, Arizona. For more information about his scientific career, see http://pr.caltech.edu/media/ Press_ Releases/PR12544.html.

Diane Boyer