Congratulations 2011 Vin Hoeman winners Charlie Feris and Gary White who received the award at the 2011 convention in Ohio. Charlie has met every 50 completer except two and has written an amazing history of completers. He is also hosting the 2012 convention on Mount Hood.
Gary White has done a ton of stuff including hosting the 2010 convention in Mississippi where he coordinated getting the new marker there. He is very active with the Merc and was a great friend of Jakk Longacre.
The nomination for Gary White said:
We nominate Gary White for this prestigious honor. Gary has been working “behind the scenes” for the Club since at least 1999. He transported Jack Longacre to Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park in Montana in 2000 and in 2001, and retrieved Jack when he reached the end of his kayak journey each time. He has been a longtime member of The Crew, and has assisted Jean Trousdale in transporting (no small feat!) and setting up The Merc at every convention for a decade. His efforts at the MS-10 convention are of course legendary, not the least of which was obtaining an enormous boulder and affixing a beautiful plaque to it that honored the landowners. We can think of no more deserving candidate this year than Gary.
The nomination for Charlie Feris said:
We nominate Charlie Feris for the Vin Hoeman Award. Charlie is deserving of the award. He has quietly been an ambassador for highpointing ever since he completed the “48” in 1971. As a club advocate, he has attended virtually all of the conventions and his presentation to the membership in Mississippi was outstanding. His talk on the early highpointers was a very appropriate program to be presented at a convention. He has physical correspondence from all of the first highpointing pioneers and will be donating these documents to the club archives.
Charlie will be one of the official hosts for the Oregon convention, but his biggest contributions to the club over the years have been his unofficial, behind-the-scenes efforts in supporting club members and others in their pursuit of highpoints. For example, a couple of club members made national news when they were injured on Mt. Hood several years ago. Charlie took it upon himself to visit them in the hospital on behalf of all Highpointers’ Club members (he did not know the climbers personally). The injured climbers really appreciated his thoughtfulness. He has also assisted numerous climbers in their attempts on Mt. Hood, providing them with info or a place to stay, or even climbing the peak with them.
Probably the most important reason why Charlie deserves the Vin Hoeman Award is simply his place in highpointing history. He is the last of the original colorful personalities who did highpoints without the benefit of guidebooks or the support of an organization. Charlie is a link to the highpointing past and he has served the club well in keeping the memories of the club pioneers alive.
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