BILL GODFREY
The death of William C. Godfrey, chief ranger of the Crater Lake Park service, in a blizzard near Anna Springs last night, has cast a cloud of gloom over the entire community.
“Bill” was a veteran of the park service, having held a responsible position at Yosemite before coming here. Before that time he had been a member of the U.S. Forest Service.
He was a man of fine character, well read, high minded and determined. When he set out to do a thing, he took a genuine pride in doing it. It was this quality so characteristic of the service to which he belonged which was responsible for his death.
Bill felt that he should be at Anna Spring camp. He tried to get through from Medford, but had to turn back. So he tried it from the south entrance, via Fort Klamath and, in spite of the unfavorable weather, he was determined not to turn back again.
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It is easy to say Bill was foolhardy, that he overestimated his own strength and underestimated the strength of the elements. But such a judgment fails to take into account the code of the service to which he belonged, and the dominant elements of his character.
It is essentially the same code, and the same character, that led our forefathers on the successful conquest across the wilderness and our doughboys across the Hindenburg line. Bill Godfrey’s tragedy is merely another example of the fact that there are heroes of peace as well as of war. The rewards for the latter far exceed the rewards of the former, but the qualities of courage and self sacrifice, behind them, are fundamentally the same.
The article goes on to say that Godfrey was 41 years old and had been chief ranger of Crater Lake National Park since April 1929. Previously he was assigned to Yosemite National Park for 2 years and before that 6 years in the Forest Service, including service with the Fremont National Forest in Lakeview, Oregon.
For some reason, known only to himself, Godfrey tried on foot to buck his way through deep snow to Anna Springs with only light clothing and no gloves and against the advice of people with whom he had talked just hours before by telephone at Fort Klamath. He collapsed just 2 miles short of Anna Springs and was found dying from exposure at 9 p.m. by a rescuer, Rudy Luecke. He lived for only several minutes after being found and tried vainly to say something to his rescuer. Significantly, the search party were all using skis so Godfrey’s chances in the deep snow on foot were hopeless.
