HistoryLink is the first and largest encyclopedia of regional history created expressly for the Internet, dedicated to the principle that history belongs to the entire community and that a better understanding of past events can improve public debate and decisions and enrich the lives of individuals.
The following are Joel Connelly’s contributions to HistoryLink.
Features
Bullitt, Stimson (1919-2009)
Stimson Bullitt climbed mountains and rock faces, helped transform Seattle’s rundown 1st Avenue, served a decade as King Broadcasting Co. president, was a skilled appellate lawyer, championed civil liberties and environmental causes, was awarded a Purple Heart in the World War II Leyte landing, and earned a place on Nixon’s enemies list. None of these achievements, taken alone, tell his story. The whole of his 89-year life manages to exceed even the sum of its parts.
Hornbein, Thomas (b. 1930)
Tom Hornbein is known for one of mountaineering’s epic achievements: the 1963 climb of Mount Everest’s West Ridge with Willi Unsoeld (1926-1979), in which the two men traversed the 29,028-foot summit of the earth and spent a night exposed at 27,900 feet. He wrote a celebrated book, Everest: The West Ridge, reissued in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of the climb. But Hornbein never returned to the Khumbu region of Nepal.
North Cascades Conservation Council
The North Cascades Conservation Council has, since 1957, been an unchanging agent of change. Turning out members for hearings, going to court, deploying hiking guides and picture books, it has helped preserve 2.21 million acres in Washington state between Stevens Pass and the Canadian border as parks, recreation areas, and wilderness area. It is, however, never satisfied and always wants more land set aside. The outfit is hard to love, impossible not to admire.
Walker, Doug (1950-2015) and Maggie (b. 1953)
Doug Walker was a Seattle software entrepreneur who became a linchpin in Puget Sound philanthropy, with national conservation commitments that include chairing the board of The Wilderness Society. A climber who did a difficult Himalayan ascent, he shared his skills with kids. Maggie Walker is a master at work on boards and the connectivity that drives them, her work so valued that the UW’s College of Arts & Sciences had a tropical fish named for her.