BILL KEES ~ NOVEMBER 9, 2021 ~ LIGHT A CANDLE, BUILD A SHRINE

Bill was always on an adventure

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in the mountains sharing his birthday with friends

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is img_7466-1.jpg — **sharing a laugh and a refreshment**

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is img_4190.jpg — **sometimes just hangin in his yard …**

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is img_3366.jpg — **or especially with Susan his** **wife, good friend, counselor and probation officer**

Salud Guillermo

un amigo maravilloso

te amamos querido amigo

rŌbert

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Hey Jerry, very, very nice post about Bill Kees.

I wanted to leave this short sonnet I wrote about Bill—and gave to Susan—for the memorial at Mountainfilm. Here it is …

Remembering Bill Kees

We shouldn’t measure lives in years, The only real measure of a life is friends. Good friends add up to a good life, Great friends make it even better.

Bill Kees was such a friend. Bill was a climber, as I had been Years earlier—and I treasured that. We never climbed together

But Bill was the kind of friend You would need, and would trust On the other end of the rope

Ready to catch you when you fell. Bill Kees was just such a friend, There aren’t that many.

Thanks Bill

Lito Tejada-Flores

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Jerry
Thanks for the reminder re Bill. I didn’t know him well at all but like all of the tribe, connection was easy.
I met Bill in the early ‘70’s as you know when he hosted Jeff Lowe and I when we came down to Telluride to climb Bridalveil. A wonderful man then and a wonderful man on our second encounter decades later.
I sometimes wonder at the brilliant weave of connections that have held our community together for 50 years now. I encounter folks I haven’t seen in 30 years and the conversation picks up as if we saw each other yesterday.
Además, even tribal members within the circle that I’ve never met are like old friends when we meet. So many small degrees of separation mean we “ know“
each other before even meeting.
We have all been extremely lucky to be born into a generation that questioned the traditional American model and it encouraged the often eccentric lives, set in wild spaces all over the globe, that we have led.
A candle indeed, a raised glass to the fallen. All hail living your life however the fuck you want !!

Mike Weis

2 thoughts on “BILL KEES ~ NOVEMBER 9, 2021 ~ LIGHT A CANDLE, BUILD A SHRINE”

Hey Jerry, very, very nice post about Bill Kees.

I tried to leave a comment but the system, my lack of a password ?? Etc., etc., foiled my attempt.

I wanted to leave this short sonnet I wrote about Bill—and gave to Susan—for the memorial at Mountainfilm. Here it is

Remembering Bill Kees

We shouldn’t measure lives in years, The only real measure of a life is friends. Good friends add up to a good life, Great friends make it even better.

Bill Kees was such a friend. Bill was a climber, as I had been Years earlier—and I treasured that. We never climbed together

But Bill was the kind of friend You would need, and would trust On the other end of the rope

Ready to catch you when you fell. Bill Kees was just such a friend, There aren’t that many. Thanks Bill.

Bill’s memory remains strong and his spirit is with us at every “put-in”, when we tear off our climbing skins and finish our Figure 8s. What’s on today’s agenda Bill? Get outside and have some fun!