Date:         Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:13:26 -0700
Reply-To:     Todd P Last <Rubatoguy@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Todd P Last <Rubatoguy@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Was Joshua Cranson a list member?
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Wear your seatbelts people!

http://www.telluridewatch.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Well-Known+Outdoorswoman+Lived+Life+Passionately%20&id=3268109-Well-Known+Outdoorswoman+Lived+Life+Passionately&instance=secondary_stories_left_column



TELLURIDE – When beloved local fishing guide and unassuming humanitarian
Hilary Fitzgerald died after a car accident near Paonia last Friday,
friend Hilary White struggled to explain the death to Maya, White’s
young daughter.

Fitzgerald and Maya had a special bond. “Hilary stepped into my life at
a time when I really needed help parenting,” White said. “She was just
there.”

The simple act of being there, whether she was opening the world of
fly-fishing to awe-struck visitors, being a steady but often
inconspicuous warrior for local environmental and educational endeavors,
or simply stepping up to help a friend care for her daughter during a
rough patch, proved to be the most dazzling gift Fitzgerald brought to
those that knew her.

“Not too many people have no ego involved whatsoever,” White said, “but
she was one of those people – she was always so interested in what other
people were doing, she always wanted to help. So many people are so
wrapped up in what they have going on – and she always had a lot of
things going on – but she would always find time for other people.”

Fitzgerald was passing through Paonia last Friday between fishing trips
when a 17-year-old girl driving a Pontiac Grand Am struck the Vanagon
van Fitzgerald was riding in, at the intersection of Highway 133 and Sam
Wade Road.

Fitzgerald, who was in the passenger seat, was thrown out of the vehicle
as it rolled. She was later pronounced dead at the Delta County Memorial
Hospital. She wasn’t wearing her seatbelt.

She is survived by parents Mike and Jonna Fitzgerald, most recently of
Hawaii; sister Sarah Fitzgerald of Missoula, Mont.; and a large circle
of friends and family.

The driver of the Vanagon, fellow Black Canyon guide Joshua Cranson,
suffered minor injuries. The teenage driver of the other vehicle was
uninjured. The Colorado Highway Department has not released information
on whether charges will be filed.

Fitzgerald grew up in Montana, surrounded by the trout-filled rivers,
native forests, and towering peaks that sparked both her love of
fly-fishing and telemark skiing, as well as her commitment to
environmental preservation.

She first visited Telluride in 2000, returning four years later to make
it her home. And while she built a reputation as one of the region’s
premier (and most stunning) fly-fishing guides, who spent her summers
guiding trips on rivers like the Gunnison, San Miguel, Uncompahgre, and
Dolores for regional outfitters Telluride Outside, RIGS Fly Shop, and
Black Canyon Anglers, Fitzgerald was much more than simply one of the
Telluride community’s most respected outdoorswomen.

“Hill put down four lifetimes worth of miles in her 29 years,” said
sister Sarah Fitzgerald, noting her sister’s worldly travels to places
like Africa, India, South, and Central America, Mexico, Nepal, and
Southest Asia. “She lived fully and passionately, traveling all over the
world and the U.S… but she chose this place as her home.”

Fitzgerald came to Telluride brimming with a love of adventure, spending
her winters honing her skills as a radical telemark skier and sharing
her love of fishing with captivated clients during the summers. But her
passion for wild places ran deeper than simply seeking the adrenaline
rush unearthed when landing a prize trout or skiing a fresh line.

Fitzgerald received a B. A. in Environmental Studies and a second degree
in Cultural and Regional Studies with a focus on Sustainable
Development, from the environmental program at Arizona’s Prescott
College. Prior to coming to Telluride, she helped create a sustainable
development strategy in Oahu, Hawaii; worked as a backcountry ranger in
her native state of Montana; and was hired as a field instructor and
naturalist for a private environmental science school in California.

When she came to Telluride, Fitzgerald quickly engaged in local
sustainability efforts. She lived briefly at Tomten Farm, a
solar-powered organic farm on Hastings Mesa, and when The New Community
Coalition was formed, Fitzgerald was one of the first to assist the
local sustainability-minded nonprofit by authoring a research project
that looked at other communities’ sustainability efforts. “Her
enthusiasm and passion was amazing,” said director of TNCC and Tomten
Farm founder, Kris Holstrom. “She loved the mesa and will be sorely missed.”

In September of 2008, Fitzgerald took the position of Program Director
at the Pinhead Institute, another local nonprofit foundation committed
to science and education.

While her educational background in environmental studies and
sustainability gave Fitzgerald the knowledge to become a valuable member
of the local environmental movement, those who were closest to her knew
that her community involvement was ultimately an effect of the seemingly
bottomless wellspring of compassion that guided everything she did.

“It was more than just her formal education – it was her compassion, and
her desire to do good in world,” her sister Sarah said. “She showed that
on one hand by being an influential guide, and on the other with her
understanding of and dedication to sustainability. She always had this
desire to do more, and give more.”

That inborn drive to do and give had carved a new path for Fitzgerald.
She was slated to begin her studies in naturopathy next month in
Portland, a move her family says fit perfectly with the person they knew
her to be: As friend and boss John Duncan described her, a person with
“old world knowledge.”

“It was her way of coming full circle, being the old soul she was,”
Sarah said of Fitzgerald’s decision to pursue a new path in oriental
medicine. “Hilary was a healer in so many ways, and coming up on 30 she
seemed to reawaken to an old calling – a calling of healing, on a new
and deeper level.”

Those who remember Fitzgerald, in the wake of her death, remember the
telemark skier, fishing guide, and world traveler who brought a dazzling
smile to the wildest of places. They remember, also, the low-key
environmentalist and community activist, who was fiercely protective of
the landscapes that couldn’t protect themselves.

But they also remember the simple, stunning essence of this daughter,
sister, and friend: A young girl whose passion for wild places was
ignited after explorations of Glacier National Park with her parents. A
teenager, who bought an amethyst necklace to match her sister’s while
the two were on a six-week trip across England – the first of her many
worldly adventures. A student who adopted a kindergarten-aged orphan in
Honduras through a humanitarian organization, and who has continued to
support the child through her recent graduation from high school. A
woman who fished rivers and skied powder and worked for nonprofits, but
who also always remembered to write beautiful letters to loved ones
every birthday, anniversary, or special occasion.

They remember a person who wasn’t especially comfortable with kids, but
who nevertheless became a very important friend to one little girl at a
time when her mother needed help.

White said she was crushed by the news of Fitzgerald’s death, but
daughter Maya – who spent much of her formative years with Fitzgerald –
told her mother not to cry. “Don’t worry Mommy,” she said. “Now she’s an
angel, and she’s everywhere.”

A fund has been set up at Alpine Bank in Hilary Fitzgerald’s name, to
support global humanitarian charities.