Honoring the Life of George Duffy
George Duffy - A Letter to My Friends In Wilderness
George Duffy passed away on July 8, 2010. George lived and breathed wilderness. He had many roles in his life, all revolving around wilderness and the outdoors. He was a wilderness ranger, climber, mountaineer, search and rescue volunteer - he was really larger than life itself. He was a real renaissance man of the wilderness.
Even though our paths crossed briefly several times, he left a profound impression on me. He was just an awesome guy, giving freely of his time, gentle and kind, full of life and boundless energy, a skillful and careful mountaineer, and a real advocate for wilderness. He touched a lot of lives in a very positive way.
I first met George in the late 1970s when I signed up for a rock climbing lesson with a couple friends through Alpine Country in West Covina, one of those independent outdoors stores that flourished at that time. George was our instructor and we worked out a number of bouldering problems at Mount Rubidoux, tied into a Goldline rope with a bowline on a coil. George was patient with a steady banter of encouragement.
A few years later I got interested in search and rescue and decided to try out for the East Valley Search and Rescue team in my neck of the woods of southern California. George was their trainer and I went on a few training drills with the team to check it out. The majority of search and rescue teams required you to be a reserve deputy sheriff and attend the academy. My modest experimentation with controlled substances pretty much ruled out my further participation and I can’t effectively argue with that. But again, George was encouraging and sympathetic. I did take pleasure in summiting first on every training drill I did with the team and George noticed that. I was a lot younger then and in all fairness, most of that SAR team was a little flabby being a rather new team and not very experienced.
George was later hired as the Wilderness Ranger for the Angeles National Forest and started up a volunteer wilderness ranger team. I saw the advertisement at the San Dimas REI and signed right up. I did several wilderness patrols along with George, engaging visitors and maintaining trails in the Cucamonga, Sheep Mountain, and San Gabriel Wilderness Areas. On one epic trip, we hiked deep into the San Gabriel Wilderness up West Fork Bear Creek far from any trail, some of the most rugged terrain you’ll find anywhere. George, then in his 50s (like I am now) was like a cat as he moved along the trail-less track.
Later my new girlfriend joined the team and together we did a three day patrol over a Memorial Day weekend down the East Fork San Gabriel River from Angeles Crest to the East Fork Station. George made sure we were met at the end of the trip by other rangers since radio contact was sporadic in the deep canyon during which we’d be out of touch for hours. I married that girl a few months later and after 20 years she’s still there on the other side of the bed.
In 1990 my wife and I decided that it was time to leave southern California because things were changing there and not for the better. We lost touch with George after we moved up to the Pacific Northwest. About a year ago I found him on facebook. He’d retired from the Forest Service and had moved to New Mexico. In New Mexico he was already having a significant influence on wilderness issues. That was just the kind of person he was, he made a lasting impression everywhere he went. He made a big impression on me and I am a richer person having known him. He was one of a kind. Rest in peace George Duffy. I’m sure you’re treading a beautiful wilderness somewhere, where “the dimuendo of the Canyon wren and the raucous scolding of the Stellar’s jay invite our hearts to sing.”