1991 Honorary Member Profile : Bill Fix

William C. Fix, 64, a two-time club president and walking encyclopedia of climbing history, was unanimously approved as an honorary member of the Spokane Mountaineers at the October General Meeting.

His first climb was Mt. Baker in 1945. But more notable was a 40-day pioneering trip into the Coast Range of British Columbia in 1948, when he was a 22-year-old student on a Yale University expedition. That group named several peaks northwest of Mt. Waddington. Fix said he broke all four springs and had to patch the fuel tank of his 1936 Studebaker Dictator with chewing gum as he left the mountains from that expedition.

He climbed an 800-ft wall of blue ice up Pinnacle Gully on Mt. Washington in 1948, before the development of specialized ice tools. He made the first ascent of the North Peak of Mt. Goode-the highest peak in the North Cascades-with Fred Beckey in 1953. As a Spokane Mountaineer, he climbed numerous Northwest peaks, including a first ascent of Glory Mountain near Cascade Pass in 1956, a feat that led to the Spokane Mountaineers' first listing in the American Alpine Club Journal in 1957. He climbed Sir Donald in 1959, Bugaboo Spire in 1968. In 1965, he was a ropemate on Mt. Moran in the Tetons with a 16-year-old mountaineer who he described in a subsequent Kinnikinnick write-up as the most promising climber he'd ever seen. The climber was John Roskelley.

Fix, an investment broker, was born in Seattle and moved to Spokane with his wife, Harriet, in 1952. He joined the club in 1956 and was elected president in 1957 and again in 1959, when the club had 60 members. He was elected vice-president in 1989, when the club had grown to 600 members. He has served on the Board of Trustees, several committees, and has been the club librarian since 1961.

Acting as a financial advisor, Fix has helped the club make wise investments through the 1980's. He also has helped the club in building a climbing and hiking library of 150 pieces and has generously made his 1,400-piece library collection available to club members.

Fix is the 23rd person to be selected as an honorary member in the club's 76-year history....

Rich Landers