Fifty years ago, an almost-disillusioned former public school teacher visited Proctor Headmaster Lyle Farrell, to sell him life insurance. They struck up a friendship. He shared with Dr. Farrell his desire to teach young people in a setting where he would have freedom to explore his passions and the passions of his students. The life insurance salesman left with a contract to teach, coach and run a variety of organizations, such as this Hunting Club (photographed in 1959.)
Over the decades that followed, Robert Wilson (pictured at left, above) threw himself into the lives of thousands of Proctor students, teaching math, surveying and architecture while transforming the landscape of the school both figuratively and literally.
Late one afternoon in the early 60s, he challenged a few of his alpine skiers to join him on a bushwacking adventure, skiing back to Proctor from the peak of Ragged Mountain Ski Area. The adventurers failed to beat the bus home, but their tracks provided all the surveying needed to cut Wilson's Wonder Trail, seen here receiving a bridge improvement last November:
Bob Wilson, now a spry 85, returned last week to join Dave Pilla's Forestry and Wildlife Science classes. The stories he shared tumble over one another....each charged with wit, love and the constant, buoyant positive attitude that distinguish Bob Wilson...captivating students born when he was 70.
Dave introduced Bob to the community in assembly. "Stand up if you've ever skied at The Blackwater...if you've hiked Proctor trails...if you've ever studied surveying...wildlife science...." When everyone was standing, Bob offered his usual shot of empowering optimism, telling students "You are Proctor."
One of Bob's stories recounts his team of students using dynamite (much too much dynamite) to blast ledge to create the Blackwater Ski Area. A kitchen ceiling in the village collapsed; the pipe to a well shattered on Bradley Lake Rd....
Bob and a team of skiers designed and constructed the suspension bridge that enables us to cross the Blackwater River from Carr Field.
The spirit of student activism that Bob embodies is alive today, twenty years after his retirement. A team of skiers is helping build the new sauna at Elbow Pond. Here, they inspect a bridge over the egress at the south end of the pond:
Sam helps with some measurements on a wall that is about to be positioned.
Students and teachers have been fabricating the walls at a maintenance shed on campus under the direction of Brad Hardie. Now, they move the west wall onto the newly-poured foundation.
With many hands helping, the walls go up quickly. Plans call for the sauna to be operating in a few weeks.
Fifty years have passed, and another ski team pitches in on an improvement project. Some traditions endure.
