Otis McCallister, 1889-1980

Publication Year: 1981.

otis McAllister

1889-1980

Otis McAllister, a member of the American Alpine Club since 1943 and an honorary member since 1977, died on November 16, 1980 at his home in Mexico City. He was 91 years old. He graduated from Harvard in 1907. After moving to Mexico to teach in 1919, he founded the Club de Exploraciones de México in 1922 and was its president for the next nine years. He was the source of unstinted assistance both to Mexican climbers and to foreign mountaineers climbing in his adopted land. He received three gold medals: one from the Club de Exploraciones in 1926, one from the Federation of Hiking Clubs of Mexico and one from the Legión Alpina of the city of Puebla. He was born in San Francisco, where his grandfather, James Otis, was mayor in the 1870s.