Two Students at University Killed During Vacation

A freak rock fall killed a mountain climbing senior this summer, while a teaching fellow drowned in another accident.

Edward C. Stabler '55 was climbing Fox Mountain in the Selkirk Range in British Columbia on August 16 when he was hit by part of a rock fall. Stabler, who joined the Mountaineering Club last year, was climbing with Bruce Gerhard '52 and James M. Newell '55 when the accident occurred.

"We had started to climb Mt. Fox but were forced to turn back because of bad weather--a mixture of snow, rain and fog," Gerhard said yesterday. "At 5:30 p.m. we were descending a gully of dirt and rocks when Jim yelled a warning and I looked up and saw hundreds of rocks falling down the gully, moving at a very high speed."

Newell and Gerhard managed to find cover, but Stabler, in the open, was hit by several of the rocks. When his two companions reached him Stabler was unconscious, and died three minutes later.

Because it was too dangerous to move the body, Stabler was buried there. He was from Syosset, L. I.

Patrick A. Butler '50 3G, a teaching fellow in Biology, was killed in Alaska where he was a civilian consultant for the Army on edible and poisonous plants and survival techniques.

Butler and three other top survival experts were assigned to come down the Charley River on a rubber raft, testing equipment and collecting plant material.

Butler and one other man had walked about six miles upstream one day and had waded across the Charley to the other side. Later, when Butler wanted to get back to camp and get his boat, he decided to swim the river--about 25 yards across. Two-thirds across, he suddenly called for help and then disappeared from sight. Although officials spent several weeks searching the river no trace was found. A cross was erected at the side of the river