Ruth et al,

I, too, will never forget Smitty. I was a young Army lieutenant, just back
from Viet Nam in 1968, putting in my final months at Fort Huachuca, then
working as a ranger for the National Park Service at Coronado National
Memorial.

My wife and I got acquainted with the local birders, who gravitated to the
Mile Hi Ranch in Ramsey Canyon, where Carroll and Joan Peabody entertained
all who came seeking some 14 hummingbird species. We probably first met
Smitty there at a Christmas Bird Count compilation. Over the course of more
than a year, Smitty and I made occasional forays into the countryside in
search of the resident birds. He was incredibly good at finding much more
than I suspected of being there, and I was awed by his skill. He was also
very patient and very gentle with the birds . . .and with neophyte birders
like me.

Smitty was a civilian employee of the Army at that time, and I remember that
he got us the key to Garden Canyon on the military reservation. It was a
treat to explore the canyon with him, realizing that few people visited the
place.

With Smitty as my mentor, I was inspired to expand my explorations into more
remote canyons and valleys. I was thrilled to call up an elegant trogon in
Copper Canyon and to spot a red-faced warbler in Sycamore Canyon.

In 1970 we moved to Rainier, Oregon, and helped start the Willapa Hills
Audubon Society centered on Longview, Washington. But by 1979 I was itching
to see southeastern Arizona again, so I took five Audubon members to the
Mile Hi Ranch for a week in March. Susan Saul wrote up the trip for the
Audubon chapter newsletter, and mentioned that we took "a hike up Garden
Canyon on the Ft. Huachuca Army base led by Smitty, a local super-birder who
doesn't even use binoculars."

Well, those were the incidents in my life that were touched--or inspired--by
Smitty, and I am thrilled to read the tributes written by others who share
my great respect for this remarkable person.

Darrel Whipple
Rainier, Oregon
dwhipple at columbia-center.org