Jack and Joyce Parsell Article…

There is an article that was published in the Sunday, December 14th edition of The Watertown Daily Times, (Watertown New York) featuring Highpointers Jack and Joyce Parsell.  Just about everyone that has been in the Club for a while know them both as “Charter Members.”

This article, written by Chris Brock, is a very nice and interesting read.

“Mr. Parsell is one of the original Highpointers, a national group formed in 1987 whose members strive to reach all the natural highest points in each state. The Watertown resident completed all 50 in 1989 with a trek up the 13,804-foot Gannett Peak in Wyoming, becoming the 10th person to reach all 50.

He’s made return trips, some more than once, to about 40 of the high points, if only, on some, to scatter ashes of Highpointers he’s outlived. His wife has done 37 high points.”

Experiencing life’s highs and lows
Watertown octogenarians’ mission: visiting states’ peaks, valleys, tri-points
By CHRIS BROCK
TIMES STAFF WRITER
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2008

John C. “Jack” Parsell has been here, there and all the high and low points in between in his 87 years of life. His wife, Joyce, 89, hasn’t been far behind him. “I robbed the cradle,” she likes to joke.

Mr. Parsell is one of the original Highpointers, a national group formed in 1987 whose members strive to reach all the natural highest points in each state. The Watertown resident completed all 50 in 1989 with a trek up the 13,804-foot Gannett Peak in Wyoming, becoming the 10th person to reach all 50.

He’s made return trips, some more than once, to about 40 of the high points, if only, on some, to scatter ashes of Highpointers he’s outlived. His wife has done 37 high points.

But Mr. Parsell wasn’t content to reach all the high points. He decided to keep going and visit all the low points in the country, becoming the first person to do so.

When he was done with that, he still had energy — so he decided to visit all the dry “tri-point” areas in the country, the points where three states meet. There are 62 of them. Mr. Parsell has visited the 38 dry-land tri-points, and Mrs. Parsell has been to all but five.

Mr. Parsell originated the tri-point and low-point ideas and created “mini cults” of people following in his steps. He was mentioned briefly in a New York Times article last month about the Highpointers, but anyone who may have tried to track him down may have been vexed because the article misspelled his name.

Mr. Parsell has also climbed to the summits of all 46 Adirondack major peaks twice. He’s got about 40 under his belt for his third time around on that task. Mrs. Parsell has done 39 of the “46ers.”

To read the rest of this story:  CLICK HERE!

This entry was posted in General and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.