2001 Distinguished Service Award

The Everett Mountaineers is extremely proud to present its 2001 Distinguished Service Award to Ron Smith who has demonstrated these characteristics consistently over the years in many areas of the Branch.

Ron joined The Mountaineers in 1979. He has graduated from the Everett Alpine Scrambling and Telemark Skiing courses, and has Basic Climbing Course Equivalency. Ron has been active in alpine scrambling, climbing, skiing, first aid, trail maintenance and lookout restoration. He was instrumental in his efforts with other branch members to revive the alpine scrambling program within the branch during the 1989-1991 time period. At the time, there was no scrambling class and very few scrambling trips.  Ron and the other branch members revitalized the core program that later committees continued to improve to its current status as probably the best alpine scrambling program within the Club. Over the past twelve years, the alpine scrambling program has created many strong alpine scramblers who later took the basic and intermediate climbing courses. Ron has been chairman of the Alpine Scrambling Committee as well as course instructor and trip leader.

After serving as Alpine Scrambling Committee Chair, Ron served as Branch Trustee on The Mountaineers Board of Trustees. During Ron's term the Board changed the Mountaineers logo (Ron lead the motion), approved a major remodel of the Mountaineers building, started the Northwest Environmental Committee, accepted a long overdue Strategic Plan, and dealt with multiple difficult issues such "pay for rescue," "user fees," "various land management agencies desires to discontinue climbing summit registers" and "the lethal taking of nuisance sea lions."

Continuing to serve the Branch upon "retiring" as Branch Trustee, Ron became the Social Committee Chair for over six years. Each branch meeting during those years, he came early to set up the meeting room, ensured that there were coffee, beverages and treats for us to enjoy during the evening then stayed late to clean up the kitchen and the meeting room. He also personally served as the Annual Banquet Coordinator for 1997 and 1998. Many hours on tasks for which it is very, very difficult to find volunteers!

Ron is vigilant steward of the land. He serves as a crew leader for the very hard and tiring work of trail maintenance and has performed many hours of labor on the restorations of the Three Fingers, Pilchuck and Heybrook Lookouts. Ron is very environmentally conscious when participating in his beloved activities of climbing, scrambling, skiing, hiking and backpacking.

While performing his Branch leadership roles as officer and chair of several different committees, Ron was a member of our Executive Committee which advises the Branch Chair. He was a stalwart voice to help guide us into the future while keeping us mindful of rich heritage. At times, these can cause conflict in a changing organization. His unique sense of humor has made the difficult volunteer tasks easier to perform and has made the long journeys down the trail more joyful! Ron is one of those members who does a lot for the Branch in the background and has been a long time steady performing volunteer. He is an instructor for Nordic Skiing and MOFA.

Ron, THANKS for your past and continuing service to the Everett Mountaineers!! You perpetuate the Mountaineer spirit through your boundless and unceasing energy and passion for outdoor recreation and conservation.

Information for this article was provided by Roy Metzgar, Dana Miller, Joellyn Jackson and Don Heck.