FR ITZ LIPPM A N N 1921-1977

Fritz Lippm ann died on M ay 13, 1977, of metastatic cancer, after a long and debilitating illness. His climbing career started in the late 1930’s, and he became identified in 1940 as a member of a California climbing quartet that also include Jack Arnold, Robin Hansen and Tom Rixon. W orld W ar II abruptly halted their collaboration. Arnold joined the R.C.A.F. and was shot down over Germany to spend the war in

prison camp; Hansen and Lippmann became P38 and B17 pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps and completed their quota of combat missions in the European and N orth African theaters. The three reunited, astonish­ingly unscathed, in 1946, to make the first ascent of the Lost Arrow in Yosemite Valley (they were joined by Anton N elson). This was a sym­bolic and personal triumph over both a climbing challenge and Naziism; for Arnold, Hansen and Lippmann had made four attempts at the climb in 1940 and 1941.

Fritz participated in the attem pt on McKinley by the W est Buttress in 1952 and in the expedition to M akalu in 1954. In 1945, he married Barbara Tackle, a fellow-climber and a devoted wife, who survives him. In daily life, Fritz was a high-school teacher, loyal and attentive to his students. His warm and spontaneous idealism was cherished by his friends.

T homas H. J ukes