Robert Ellingwood
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ROBERT ELLINGWOOD. Born 1918. TRANSCRIPT of OH 1449V A-B. This interview was recorded on December 5, 2006, for the Maria Rogers Oral History Program. The interviewer is Wendy Hall. The interview also is available in video format, filmed by Wendy Hall. The interview was transcribed by Cyns Nelson. NOTE: The interviewer’s questions and comments appear in parentheses. Added material appears in brackets. ABSTRACT: Robert Ellingwood talks about his father, Albert Ellingwood, who was an academic and nationally known author in the fields of political and social science and the law. More notably, Albert was a pioneer mountain climber during the early 1900s, acquiring his craft and taste for the sport in the Swiss Alps. In this interview, Robert describes his father’s climbs, companions, preparation, and equipment—some of which is shown on video. Interviewer Wendy Hall reads excerpts from books and articles, including Albert’s 1934 eulogy in Trail and Timberline, to frame the interview. She also displays photographs that illustrate Albert Ellingwood’s accomplishments. [A]. 00:00 (I’m Wendy Hall with the Maria Rogers Oral History Program of the Carnegie Branch Library, and I am at the Carnegie Branch Library today, December 5, 2006, with Robert Ellingwood, who is the son of Albert Ellingwood, about whom we are going to talk today.) (Albert R. Ellingwood was a mountain climber, and his son Robert has brought in some of his more interesting artifacts related to climbing. To begin today’s interview, I’m going to read Albert Ellingwood’s obituary, out of the magazine Trail & Timberline. It was published June 1934; it’s number 188. And if you would, Mr. Ellingwood, I’d like you to comment as I’m reading from the obituary.) Okay. I’d be glad to. (“Albert R. Ellingwood, one of the most valued members of the Colorado Mountain Club, died on May 12, following an operation. He had been ill for several months. Dr. Ellingwood was born 46 years ago, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended Colorado Springs High School and Colorado College.” When did he move from Iowa?) That’s an interesting little thing. His father, Francis Ellingwood, was a carpenter in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And when they heard about the Cripple Creek Gold Rush, in 1894, he decided that it would be a great opportunity to build houses for the miners. So he moved his family, wife Amanda and my dad, little boy, to Cripple Creek, to get in on the big building program as Cripple Creek was being built up as a gold mining community. And then, as happens in gold mining towns out West here, they had flu epidemics but no doctors and no hospitals. And the father, my dad’s father, Francis Ellingwood, died a few years later in about 1902 or thereabouts from the flu epidemic. And so after he’d passed away and was buried in Mount Pisgah Cemetery, in Cripple Creek, his mother Amanda and my dad moved to Colorado Springs because the schools were better and he was getting ready to go into high school, and she wanted him to have a good high school and college education. So that’s how come they got to be in Colorado Springs. (It continues: “In 1910 he was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship for Colorado and attended Merton College, Oxford, from 1910 to 1913, taking the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law in 1913.”) Okay. Interesting little point there, that award, the Rhodes Scholarship, was the first Rhodes Scholarship that was awarded from the state of Colorado. (And your father received it.) What? (And your father received it.) Yes, that’s right. (“After a year at the University of Pennsylvania he taught political science at Colorado College for five years. In 1918 he was given the degree of PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. From 1919 to 1927 he was professor of political science and social science at Lake Forest College, Illinois.”) Lake Forest is a suburb of Chicago, several suburbs north of Chicago, along the western shore of Lake Michigan. And he took that position because at that point in his academic career he had his eye on Northwestern University as an upgrade in his teaching opportunities. And Lake Forest College was only about 10 miles from Northwestern, so it enabled him to get closer and closer to his ultimate academic goal, which was Northwestern University. (“From 1927 until his death he was professor of political science at Northwestern University. And also during summer sessions he was professor of political science at the University of Illinois and the University of Southern California.”) It was quite popular in those days, for professors to teach summer school at some other university. And he did that, as you just heard. 05:00 (“Dr. Ellingwood’s talents as an administrator as well as a teacher were soon recognized, and he was Dean of the Department of Business Administration, Lake Forest College. And since 1931, he was Assistant Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Northwestern University. According to newspaper reports, he was Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Northwestern University at the time of his death. He was a member of the Chicago Government Planning Commission.”) (“So Dr. Ellingwood was a nationally known author in the fields of political science, social science, and law, contributing articles to the leading reviews devoted to each of these three subjects. A bibliography of his publications is contained in the American Oxonian, volume 19, number one. He was the author of three books connected with these subjects. And the books were: Departmental Cooperation and State Government, published in 1918, The Government and Labor, in collaboration with Whitcomb [Whitney] Coombs, published in 1926, and The Government and [Railroad] Transportation, also in collaboration with Whitman [Whitney] Coombs, published in 1930.”) (“Persons interested in climbing in Colorado cannot fail to recognize that Dr. Ellingwood contributed more to the sport of mountaineering in Colorado than any other person.” What an achievement!) Something I’m very proud of, of course. (“Among his achievements were the following first ascents: Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, and Kit Carson, all in 1916.”) Those are in the Sangre de Cristo Range, running north and south on the east side of the San Luis Valley, northeast of Alamosa, in southern Colorado. (“Also Lizard Head, Pigeon, and Turret, in 1920.”) Those are peaks in the San Juans, over in the general vicinity of Durango and Silverton and Telluride. (“Also the Bishop Rock in Platte Canyon, in 1924.”) That’s a rock climb southwest of Denver. (Okay. “Many of these climbs were considered impossible before Dr. Ellingwood’s ascents.” That’s impressive. “In accomplishing these ascents, he was the first person to make any substantial use, in Colorado, of the proper rock-climbing technique in the use of ropes and other safeguards.”) I might inject a comment there. The listener wonders, when the person hears this, where he learned this. He learned it while he was at Oxford. The Rhodes Scholarship is a very generous grant, which takes care of all your living expenses and your tuition and everything, and it gives quite a bit of extra money for a person that has a Rhodes Scholarship to travel extensively in Europe during the vacation periods while you’re at Oxford. So, he took advantage of that. And many of his travels during those vacation periods were to Switzerland and the Alps, to learn climbing from the Swiss guides, who were then well developed. His love of Colorado, of course, began with his living in Cripple Creek and then in Colorado Springs. And when you have that kind of love of the high country, it never goes away. And so, when he got over there it was a priceless opportunity to learn climbing from the people that were the top of the sport. Climbing began in the late 1800s in the Swiss Alps. And by the time he was over there on his scholarship, 1910 to 1913, the profession of Swiss guides was very well developed. So, he seized the opportunity to learn everything he could. He was over there a number of times climbing, so that when he got through, he came back to this country, and he brought with him all this marvelous knowledge that he had learned from the Swiss guides. He also did a little extra traveling while he was over there. I remember him telling me about taking a trip to Egypt one time. He was very interested in the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings and all of that. And he traveled around Europe a little bit, France and Germany and all. But his main spare-time activity when he was at Oxford was spent in the Austrian and Swiss Alps. 10:05 (It says: “Dr. Ellingwood also made many difficult ascents by new routes or by routes not often used, such as Pagoda by the west ridge in 1916.”) That’s right up here in Rocky Mountain National Park. (“Blanca by the east face and north ridge, in 1916.”) That’s down northeast of Alamosa. (“Maroon by the south ridge, 1919, and North Maroon by the east ridge in 1919.”) Those are the two twin peaks that are about 10 or 12 miles southwest of the famous town of Aspen. And they’re now affectionately know to all of us as the Maroon Bells. (“Evans by the north face in 1920.”) That’s straight west of Denver. (“North Maroon by the south ridge in 1922; Maroon by the north ridge in 1922; Crestone Needle by the east ridge in 1925; Little Bear, by the west ridge, in 1925.” Little Bear.) That’s down next to Blanca, also just northeast of Alamosa.