The Trail Companion

Winter 2000

In Memoriam: Will Rudge

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of former Crew Leader Will Rudge. Will was active with the Trail Center for many years from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, particularly on our Stile Ranch Trail in Santa Teresa County Park near IBM's Santa Teresa facility, where he worked as a physicist, and the Todd Quick Trail in Alum Rock Park in San Jose. Both he and his wife, Georgiana, were enthusiastic volunteers and wanted to give back to the parks after years of enjoying hiking and backpacking. They came out to their first trail project with us on California Trail Days to learn something about building trails before going on a Sierra Club service trip in the Siskiyou Wilderness. Both experiences were terrific and they became regular volunteers and crew leaders.
In the following years, while continuing work with the Trail Center, Will and Georgiana traveled the world to participate in more Sierra Club services trips, including two to Russia. In the first, to Pribaikalsky National Park on Lake Baikel in the Irkuts Region, they built a bridge and cleared trails, impressing the Russians who were surprised to see the Americans' enthusiasm for work on a vacation. On the second, to the country's (and Europe's) largest national park, Vodlozero National Park in the Karelia-Arkhangelsk Region, they helped clear logging debris from the shores of Lake Vodlozero, again to the surprise of their hosts, who were expecting college students in search of a holiday. Will retired from IBM in 1995 and looked forward to more opportunities for service and hiking as a software contractor. Unfortunately, the realities of contract work left less time free than he expected and the onset of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in 1996 forced Will to cut back on his activities, including active Trail Center duty. Will's last workday with us took place in 1997 on the Mapache Trail project in Jasper Ridge.