In Reference to Blair Kuropatkin’s “Dear Eddy” article in bqr 18:3, writing in reference to “The Surprising Truth About Addiction” by Stanton Peele in bqr 18:2

came to Flagstaff in the winter of 1983-’84 to make a new start. Had swamped for Diamond’s the previous summer during the high water but rushed back to Oregon in June upon the news of my girlfriend being killed in an automobile accident. Grief stricken, I moved on and did some forestry work in the Wallowa-Whitman mountains of North East Oregon later that summer and lived in a teepee near Bend during the early snows of fall deciding what to do with my life.

It had been a wet spring but a dry winter and my friend and brother Bob Grusy had given up on ski instructing at Snowbowl and was going to Mexico as I was heading south. But he said, “Stop in on my friends in upper Greenlaw where I’ve been staying and they will put you up. They are great guys.” So I rolled into Flag with everything I owned in a ’65 Dodge Dart and knocked on the door of a duplex in East Flag. Expecting a nagging landlord instead of a road weary stranger, Whale answered the door with a gruff “Who the hell are you?”

After introductions and small talk I got to know Jeff Voss and The Whale; boatmen who have been my friends ever since. That was my introduction to The Whale, Curtis Hansen and the beginning of a friendship and association like so many of us shared. We ran with him or along side him. Helped him out or were helped out by him given the circumstances.

Grusy and Robby Pitagora had a golden vision when they proposed the Whale Foundation. And, as few of these pipe dreams proceed, the Whale Foundation has been more than the success that they envisioned ten years ago. It is something to be applauded and supported. However, I feel that in all this we are beginning to forget who The Whale was/is. In Blair Kuropatkin’s letter in the last BQR which Stanton Peelers letter was eloquently commented on, this was stated: “The Whale Foundation was founded as a result of, and named after, a tragically and fatally addicted individual.”

While the addictions, fetishes, and anti-social behaviors of The Whale can be debated, I think that there are some basic facts about the man’s life and death which come into play which have little or nothing to do with addiction or substance abuse.

Curtis was a teenager from Idaho when he went to fight the war in Vietnam. He was a door gunner on a Huey MED-EVAC helicopter. The things he saw and did during his time there are not suitable topics for polite conversation. He did not expect to live or to come home and continue his life.

He once told me that everything that came after Vietnam was extra. He didn’t expect to have the time, so he felt like all the time after was extra. Fortunately he found the Grand Canyon and spent the majority of these “extra” years in a place he loved and with people who loved, if not worshipped him. And I think the reasons people loved The Whale were simple: Whale had a keen appreciation for the essential. His bullshit meter was razor true. He loved and appreciated people who were authentic or who, at least, did not pose. If you fit that bill, he would be your friend and defend you till the end. It was that simple with him. Toward the end of Whale’s life he was faced with many challenges. Some were work related in terms boating and some involved work up here. Some were physical, concerning his health and vitality. Some challenges he faced none of us who were close to him then probably had a clue.

Now, I’m not saying that taking your own life is the preferred alternative. And I acknowledge there are many more constructive ways of dealing with life’s problems. However, having known The Whale and having missed him after he left, the way I see it is that he decided he had enough of the “extra” years and it was time to leave while he was ahead. I don’t really think it was much more complicated than that. So, rather than remembering Whale as the “tragically and fatally addicted individual” who is the poster boy for The Whale Foundation, I would rather he be remembered as the good friend and unique individual who lived life on his terms and chose to leave life on the same terms. We miss you Whale.

Chris Geanious