George Whitmore (mountain climber)

George William Whitmore (February 8, 1931 – January 1, 2021) was an American mountain climber and conservationist. He was a member of the first team to summit El Capitan in 1958.[1][2][3][4]

Background

Whitmore was trained as a pharmacist at the University of California, San Francisco.[5]

He had served in the Air Force as an aeromedical evacuation officer and later worked as a pharmacist. He was a lifelong environmental activist on behalf of wilderness preservation, such as promoting the establishment of the Kaiser Wilderness in 1976. He lobbied for passage of the California Wilderness Act of 1984, which he later described as establishing "the longest stretch of de facto wilderness in the lower 48 states." He died in Fresno, California on January 1, 2021, from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in California.[6]

References
  1. "George Whitmore, legendary climber of El Capitan, dies at 89". KATV. 4 January 2021.
  2. "Wayne Merry, Climber Who Conquered El Capitan, Dies at 88 (Published 2019)". The New York Times. 3 December 2019.
  3. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/05/953636964/legendary-climber-and-conservationist-george-whitmore-dies-at-89
  4. https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2021-01-05/george-whitmore-legendary-el-capitan-climber-dies
  5. "George Whitmore, legendary El Capitan climber, dies at 89". Los Angeles Times. 2021-01-05. Retrieved 2021-01-20.
  6. "Conservationist George Whitmore, on 1st team to climb Yosemite's El Capitan, dies of COVID-19". The Fresno Bee.


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