Glen Dawson

Glen Dawson, who died in 2016 at one hundred three years old, was born to a life of mountains. His father, Ernest Dawson, an antiquarian bookseller from Los Angeles, was rabidly passionate about climbing peaks all over the world and served as a member, director, and later president of the Sierra Club. Glen was given his name to reflect a connection to the outdoors, as were his siblings Muir, Fern, and June.

At age nine, he was bestowed lifetime membership in the Sierra Club — a gift from Aurelia Harwood, the club’s first female president. He would hold it longer than anyone else in the organization’s history, ninety-four years in total. He first joined a four-week Sierra Club High Trip at age fifteen, where he started climbing with Sierra pioneer Norman Clyde and first teamed up with the climbing partner who would define his career, Jules Eichorn, a San Francisco teenager introduced to the club by family friend Ansel Adams. At sixteen, Dawson climbed the Matterhorn