JOHN SANFORD HUMPHREYS

1933-1967

On March 9, 1967, John Humphreys, Eastern Vice-President of the American Alpine Club, was killed near Dayton, Ohio, when the airliner on which he was a passenger collided with a private plane. John is survived by his wife, Alice, who is expecting in June, and his small son, George.

John started mountaineering in earnest in the early fifties with the Harvard Mountaineering Club, climbing in British Columbia and Alaska. He was president in his senior year. From the outset he was an able and strong climber, distinguished by his common sense, level head and extraordinary ability to work cheerfully with others, providing whatever was needed from the most menial task to good judgment and leadership.

After graduation from Harvard in 1954, John entered the Graduate School of Engineering Sciences and was also appointed to the HMC Advisory Council. While studying for his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, which he received in 1959, John was active in the Harvard Mountaineering Club, Appalachian Mountain Club and the American Alpine Club. During these years he was a member of the 1955 Harvard Mountaineering Club Karakoram Expedition and co-led the 1957 HMC Climbing Camp in British Columbia and the 1959 American Himalayan Expedition. Upon his return from the latter, he went to work for Avco Research and Development, where he was leader of the Structures Research Group. His principal activity was in experimental and theoretical analysis of the dynamic and blast loading of space and missile structures. He served the Club as a Councilor from 1959 to 1962, when he was elected Secretary. After participating in the Harvard Mountaineering Club Coast Range Climbing Camp in 1961, the 1962 Milton Cordillera Blanca Expedition and a session teaching at the Harvard Summer School, he accompanied a group of old friends in the Peruvian Andes in 1964 with his new bride Alice.

In 1965 he joined Aeronautical Research Associates of Princeton, N. J., with two major assignments. The first was to carry on work similar to that which he had done at Avco concerned with defenses against ballistic missile attack. The second, more intriguing to John, was attempting to understand and make science out of the alchemy of the performance and fatigue characteristics of modern composite materials.

John was a quiet man of extraordinary inner calm and strength. He met all circumstances, critical or trivial, head on and with great competence. His actions and thoughts, whether under mental or physical stress, such as being struck by a rock on a free rappel or dealing with a complex or controversial problem, seemed to be completely free of subjective or emotional distortion. He looked into things deeply, saw them accurately and seemed surprised or slightly embarrassed when congratulated on his successes. He enjoyed people and was happy helping them. It is typical that so large a part of his climbing was done at climbing camps helping others. How extraordinary that one person should combine such a great diversity of talents, interests and humane qualities! It is not surprising that his employer, Dr. Coleman D. Donaldson quoted from Hamlet:

He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.

Peter Aspinwall