WENDY RUESS-McCULLY (1948-1992)

Wendy Ruess-McCully, who had just begun her second year as Desert Peaks Section Treasurer, died on June 26 of a brain aneurysm. She fell immediately into a coma while preparing a dinner party for 10 DPS'ers and was declared brain dead a few hours later. She left documents specifying that all organs were to be donated and that she was then to be cremated. Wendy loved to help others, and the last thing she did was to help some people that needed new organs. Many, many DPS'ers attended her memorial service on June 27 and I want to express my appreciation to all of you for helping me get through this very difficult time. Paul Freiman realized during the service that he had been the anesthesiology technician for the recipient of Wendy's lungs. Perhaps the San Diego Chapter will soon see a new peak bagger with extra strong lungs. Wendy grew up on Long Island and graduated from St. Lawrence University in 1970 and received a Harvard MBA in 1976, the second year that women were allowed into that program. Her first marriage in 1973 lasted 10 years. Being a woman, her newly minted MBA didn't open any Wall Street doors, but it did get her a job making cold calls to sell word processors. By 1984 she was in charge of 10 people in the marketing department at a large computer corporation in Boston. In December of 1984 Wendy recognized me in a cafeteria line in Boston (I was a hot shot computer programmer) and introduced herself. I was initially smitten by her good looks, sharp business suit, large income and fancy new house, and within a few months had fallen quite in love with her as a warm loving person. For the last 7 1/2 years I have often reflected on my unbelievable good luck that this feeling was more than amply returned. We lived together from March of 85, and in the fall of 86 I convinced her to sell her house and follow me back to California. We finally got married early in 1988. This long delay was my foolishness as I was afraid of a failed second marriage. Wendy knew better and in any case was always willing to undertake risky ventures. Wendy's job had taken her to most first world countries. A nine month trip to Asia in 1973 was the first of many low budget vacations to the third world, a type of travel that she taught me to enjoy. It was difficult to find a part of the world that Wendy hadn't been to, and we were in the midst of a campaign to make extended visits everywhere. The third world countries would come first while we were still young and healthy with Europe and cruise ships being done later. Twenty more years looked like about the right amount of time to do it all. When I met Wendy her most recent outdoor experience had been as a girl scout, but she made up for lost time. Her fourth or fifth peak was Popocatepeti (17,887') outside Mexico City. Iztaccihuatl (17,342') didn't fall until the third try, and she used the Ventorrillo route to get Popo a second time. Last summer Ron Hudson led us up Ranier on an unmarked route that involved many crevasse crossings and cramponing on an ice cliff above an enormous crevasse. The Ranier Mountaineering school normally leaves a well marked track on the mountain but a recent snow had covered everything and RMS had turned back because of avalanche danger. Wendy was always in truly great shape. On a business trip in 1986 she did San Jacinto from Palm Springs as a 10,000 foot day hike. Later she twice did Snow Creek as a day hike and also did Telescope from the floor of the Panamint Valley on a 16 hour monster hike. She had also done Baldy by going over the top of Iron Mountain. For the first couple of years in California she continued to work, but I had retired and wanted her to come play full time, and 3 1/2 years ago she finally quit working. Initially she felt guilty about wasting all that education, but this feeling passed, and like everything else she undertook, she gave retirement 100%. She would schedule about 20 weeks of trips every year and there were always various projects underway to keep us busy when we were at home. A six month trip to Southeast Asia was in the works for next May. Wendy managed to cram an incredible variety of intense experiences into her life, and I was lucky to join her on the ride for the last seven years. It's hard to describe the constant sense of accomplishment that came from being around Wendy. There were always projects or trips being planned, executed and completed. I'll never get over my sense of awe at our lives always getting better. Wendy transformed herself from a savvy, professional, accomplished businesswoman to the person who brought just as much energy to managing our two lives. She loved to cultivate friends and was always getting me to call people about doing things. As a result of all this energy and good will she brought joy into many people s lives, especially mine. I shall greatly miss this remarkable, kind, loving woman. Wendy loved the Southwestern Desert and we were starting to cook up reasons for continuing to visit the desert after we finished the DPS list next fall. Wendy always loved big crowds and we hope all of you will join us on our list finisher on Chuckwalla this October 24.

-- John McCully

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