Class: 1965
Deceased: June 17, 1965
“God secure me from security, now and forever, Amen
Who’s afraid of the universe?
It’s midnight on the desert or the coast or high above timberline, the Milky Way is close and the stars are singing.
I am not small, I fill the sphere.
I tremble before the cosmos no more than a fish trembles before the tides.
We fear what we don’t know:
I know what the hills are there for and they know me.Cut the root and the plant dies.
City life is the scary life, inane, insane, tiny and alone.
Learn wildness and you don’t fear anything.
Except people afraid.”
–Terry Russell (Sumner)
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Terry Sumner and I became best friends freshman year and were roommates sophomore year. He and his younger brother were raised by a single mom, Phoebe Russell, an artist in Mill Valley, California, who sent us the best homemade fudge I had ever enjoyed then or since. Terry was an active member of the Sierra Club, was very close to David Brower, its director, and spent his summers hiking in the Sierras.
In the spring of 1962, Terry convinced me to take a 50 mile walk in Rice County, a fad begun by the Kennedy brothers. We carefully planned our route on unpaved country roads, but with obsolete USGS maps, so instead of dirt roads we walked on the sloping shoulders of paved roads which after 35 miles I found quite painful but Terry was extremely fit and talked me through to the end. During our two years at Carleton I learned to play his banjo, while he became a calligrapher and learned to etch his drawings on copper plate. He decided to transfer to UC Berkeley after his sophomore year and over the next two years he and his brother created a book of their adventures in the wilderness of the west, with their photos and all text in Terry’s calligraphy. To celebrate the Sierra Club publication of On the Loose, Terry and his brother Renny planned a raft trip together on the Green River the summer of 1965. Going around a bend they were surprised by a rapid and capsized. Terry died on that river in the springtime of his life.
David Thompson
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Terry Sumner and I lived within a few doors of each other our freshman year. We got along well, but didn’t have much contact the following year as sophomores, after which he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. Too much time has passed for me to remember how I heard, but I learned about Terry’s death soon after his river-rafting accident in the West in 1965. I also knew of the book that Terry and his brother had written, On the Loose, which was published by the Sierra Club.
Looking back on Terry’s life, I find parallels with mine. Terry had done a lot of hiking in California’s Sierra Nevada, and I backpacked extensively there, coincidentally beginning the year that Terry died. That experience was formative for me, as it must have been for Terry as well. The outdoors and especially wilderness were major influences on both of our lives. I wish Terry and I could talk about it today.
In the early 1970s, I hosted the famous environmentalist David Brower when he spoke at Miami University, and I still remember his surprise and pleasure that I had known Terry at Carleton. Today, I live on the Colorado Plateau, where river rafting is popular. Despite retaining a spirit of adventure and having done open canoeing on whitewater in the East and Midwest, I do no river rafting in the West. When people ask why, I tell people about my friend, whose memory has always been with me.
John Vankat
Comments
Terry Sumner and I lived within a few doors of each other our freshman year. We got along well, but didn’t have much contact the following year as sophomores, after which he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. Too much time has passed for me to remember how I heard, but I learned about Terry's death soon after his river-rafting accident in the West in 1965. I also knew of the book that Terry and his brother had written, On the Loose, which was published by the Sierra Club.
Looking back on Terry's life, I find parallels with mine. Terry had done a lot of hiking in California's Sierra Nevada, and I backpacked extensively there, coincidentally beginning the year that Terry died. That experience was formative for me, as it must have been for Terry as well. The outdoors and especially wilderness were major influences on both of our lives. I wish Terry and I could talk about it today.
In the early 1970s, I hosted the famous environmentalist David Brower when he spoke at Miami University, and I still remember his surprise and pleasure that I had known Terry at Carleton. Today, I live on the Colorado Plateau, where river rafting is popular. Despite retaining a spirit of adventure and having done open canoeing on whitewater in the East and Midwest, I do no river rafting in the West. When people ask why, I tell people about my friend, whose memory has always been with me.