WARREN B. SPICKARD 1918-1961

On August 20, 1961, the northwest mountaineering fraternity lost one of its most beloved members when Dr. Warren B. Spickard fell to his death while descending from the summit of the northwest peak of the Mox Peaks in the Chilliwack Range of the North Cascades.

Dr. Spickard with Duke Watson and Phil Sharpe, also Cascade Section members, had just begun the descent of a thirty-foot-high, nearly vertical pitch. All three were roped together and moving one at a time. Watson and Sharpe had climbed down and were in good belay positions. Dr. Spickard had just started down when he dislodged a large rock, which knocked him over backward. The rock then fell on the climbing rope at a point where it crossed a rock projection, cutting it in two twelve feet from his body. He then bounded down a steep ice-filled rock chute and finally over a high cliff. His body was recovered and buried below a large rock cairn at the foot of this cliff near the col between the Mox Peaks, at approximately 7500 feet elevation.

Since the area is most remote, removal of the body was impractical. It was the wish of his family that "Spick” remain in the mountains which he loved.

Dr. Spickard was not only a man of many physical accomplishments, but one of intellectual achievement: Bachelor of Science, Stanford University; Phi Beta Kappa 1940; Doctor of Medicine, Stanford University 1943. He was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi and Nu Sigma Nu social fraternities. From 1944 to 1946 he was a captain in the U. S. Army Medical Corps. Dr. Spickard practiced medicine in Seattle from 1947. He was a past president of the Seattle Society of Internal Medicine and the Washington Society of Internal Medicine. He was a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine; a member of the Washington State and American Medical Associations; a trustee of the King County Medical Society; on the executive board of the Northwestern Medical Association; an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In 1960 he received a distinguished service award in Medicine from the University of Washington School of Medicine.

"Spick” exemplified the spirit of the well rounded mountaineer. Experienced in all phases of mountaineering, whether on snow, ice, or rock, or bush whacking, back packing, or search and rescue work.

He was a member for many years of the American Alpine Club, the Seattle Mountaineers, and the Mountain Rescue Council. His mountaineering took him at various times to most portions of the western United States and Canada, to the Alps and Andes. His interest in high-altitude medical problems took him for several weeks to the Andes of South America where studies of the physiological effects of high altitudes on the natives resulted in important contributions to the knowledge of pulmonary edema, the illness which in numerous past expeditions had been diagnosed as pneumonia.

Dr. Spickard had a great interest in the preservation of wilderness areas in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. He was chairman of the Doctors Committee for the North Cascades, active in the North Cascades Conservation Council, and a member of the Snoqualmie National Forest Citizens Advisory Committee.

To those privileged to know him, his loss will be keenly felt. His continual optimism and warmth of personality, whether in the mountains or in town gatherings of climbers, many of these graciously held by Dr. Spickard and his wife, Jo, in their Mercer Island home, will long be remembered when mountaineers meet. Besides Jo, Dr. Spickard leaves three sons and two daughters.

Philip E. Sharpe