| THE CHESTER
VERSTEEG OUTINGS AWARD Bill Oliver |
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Every year several Club members are honored by the Chapter with an Outings Service Award. In addition, typically one individual is selected for the Chapter's highest outings leadership honor -the Chester Versteeg Outings Award. The inception of this prestigious honor dates back to 1976 when Maureen Cates, then Banquet/Awards Chair, went to the Chapter Archives at UCLA to research past awards. This effort resulted in the ExCom adopting a standardized list of awards. Duane McRuer took this opportunity to suggest the creation of a special award for outings, which was whole-heartedly adopted. Duane and Betty McRuer followed up with a $500 gift to pay for plaques for ensuing awards. The Chapter's first Outings Leadership Award (OLA) went to Jerry Keating in 1976. By 1987 it was finally decided that the OLA deserved a name title, similar to the Weldon Heald Conservation Award and the Phil Bernays Service Award. Bob Cates, Chair of the History Committee, researched past outstanding leaders, and Chester Versteeg was selected from his list. Doug Mantle was the 1987 recipient of the new "Chester Versteeg Outings Award." An excellent short biography of Mr. Versteeg (1887-1963) by John Robinson appeared in the DPS Desert Sage: Oct/Nov 1990 - #210; photo in #211. (Send me a sase for a copy of this article.) Mr. Versteeg, who is credited with naming many Sierra Nevada features, was honored in 1965 with the official designation of a 13,470-ft summit on the Sierra crest just SE of Mt. Tyndall as "Mount Versteeg." He is particularly renowned for his founding of the Desert Peaks Section in 1941. I'm indebted to Maureen Cates, and have extracted liberally from her letter to me, regarding the origin of the Chester Versteeg Outings Award. She noted that three winners of the Phil Bernays Award prior to 1976 were cited for their outstanding leadership. Adding these names to those provided by current-Awards-Chair Gene Andreasen, we obtain the following list of honorees: |
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The 1991 Award will go to Randy Danta, particularly for his sustained, exemplary work as Chair of the Leadership Training Committee. Outings Service Awards for '91 will be going to Frank & Ruth Dobos, David Eisenberg, Jon Inskeep (for his Sierra Madre Search & Rescue coordination efforts), Patty Kline, Igor Mamedalin, Suzanne Thomas-Mamedalin and Bill Oliver. Please join the Chapter in honoring all our new recipients of various outings and conservation awards at the upcoming Annual Banquet. A Centennial Celebration: |
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Angeles Chapter Annual Awards Banquet Saturday, March 21, 1992 6:00 pm Reception 7:00 pm Dinner Pickwick Banquet & Conference Center 1001 Riverside Drive, Burbank $25.00 Reservationist: Adam Burk (310) 645-7473 |
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