Remembering man who founded ISU Outdoor Program

Harrison Hilbert was the kind of person you think about when you envision “an outdoorsman.”

The man whose nickname was “H” climbed the highest mountains, ran the roughest white water, guided on the best fishing streams and knew how to thrive in the harshest outdoor environments. And he shared all of that knowledge with so many willing fellow adventurers.

“I think that if there is anyone that was the rock that anchored Pocatello’s outdoor community, it was H,” said Ron Watters, outdoor author and retired ISU professor who worked with Hilbert in the early 1970s to help establish Idaho State University’s Outdoor Program. “When he first came to Pocatello and started the outdoor program, he made it an open program. It, of course, served students, but it was also open to the community. It created a great mix. Great for the university. Great for Pocatello. Great for everyone.”

Hilbert, 82, passed away on June 22 at the Idaho State Veterans Home in Pocatello after a long battle with cancer. A celebration of his life will be held Sunday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Centennial Park at South Grant Avenue and Idaho Street in Pocatello.

A native of Carmel, Calif., Hilbert served in the U.S. Army along the Korean DMZ as an infantryman for 16 months before being discharged as a sergeant in 1963. He moved to Pocatello in 1964 and enrolled at Idaho State, where he majored in recreational leadership.

After graduating in 1970, he organized ISU’s Outdoor Program in connection with the ISU Student Union. He introduced untold numbers of students and community members to outdoor activities like backcountry skiing, river running, backpacking, rock and ice climbing, and caving. ISU was one of the first schools in the country to offer outdoor education in a university setting, serving as a model for other schools.

“H dispensed with a lot of rules,” Watters recalled. “People shared expenses for trips. H put in his share as well. Responsibilities were shared. Everyone became a part of a team that worked together. H made it easy to learn. As a result hundreds of students and community members learned how to climb, backpack, run rafts, kayak, cross country ski and backcountry ski.”

Susan Swetnam, a retired ISU professor who shared a lot of outdoor experiences with Hilbert, said he not only helped people develop outdoor skills, but he involved them in the planning of adventures.

“This philosophy that he got from the National Outdoor Leadership School and learned (while studying) in Scotland was not just to take people on trips, but to involve people in planning so they can plan their own trips,” said Swetnam. “People would get together and say, ‘Why don’t we do this?’ And they would plan out how to do it together. That knowledge of putting a trip together is almost as important as the skills.”

Hilbert had a passion for climbing and he joined fellow enthusiasts in climbing adventures in the Sierras, Cascades, Andes, Alaskan and Rocky Mountain ranges as well as on the granite cliffs in Yosemite National Park.

“I think if you talk to people like Everest climbers Jeff Rhoads, Kelly Irwin and Tom Whitaker, they will tell you that H was key in their success,” said Watters.

Swetnam described Hilbert as a “fierce climber and brave” and noted that some of his whitewater river adventures were “just incredible.” Yet, unlike many of his outdoor adventure contemporaries, Hilbert was not overbearing.

“H was so unassuming and so mild-mannered,” Swetnam said, “and that combination, I think, is uncommon…. He was concerned about other people and kind to other people and really gentle with other people, and at the same time, just really, really competent physically and mentally.”

Hilbert left ISU’s Outdoor Program in 1981 to become a full-time river and fishing guide, working many of the most famous waterways in the West, including Idaho’s Salmon River, Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, California’s Klamath River and many fabled Montana trout streams. He maintained a base in Southeast Idaho, however.

“H was a true outdoorsman in the full sense of the word,” Watters said. “He didn’t excel in just one activity, but in many. Very few people in the outdoor world were as well-rounded as H. He was a mountaineer, an excellent ice climber and his friends in the climbing world numbered among the world’s best. But he was also a hunter and one of the finest fishermen that you could ever meet. When he was a fly fishing guide, he worked for some of the finest outfits in the business.”

Hilbert grew up in a middle class family on the Monterrey Peninsula, the son of an ice cream shop owner. His family was kept occupied trying to make a living, so neighbors and friends were the ones who mentored him in the outdoors, taking him on hikes, teaching him about the local flora and fauna, and how to fish. Swetnam believes all those early mentors who saw potential in Hilbert influenced the way he taught others later in life.

“I think that really had a big trickle down effect on how he mentored other people, because you really change people’s lives when you get them out of doors,” she said. “He really believed in the power of being out of doors. That generational mentoring is an important piece.”

He was also a warm and caring friend to the many people who shared his adventures or benefited from his knowledge. In December of last year, a celebration of life was held for Hilbert at a local restaurant and about 150 people came to honor him. Over the next several months, as cancer began to overpower him, dozens of his friends came to visit him at the Veterans Home.

“All of them, he had touched in some way,” Watters said. “Maybe they’d gone fishing together. Maybe they spent time on a bivouac on the side of Mount Moran. Maybe they ran Ramshorn rapids together on the Middle Fork. Maybe they caught a ski run down Stacy’s at Pebble Creek. Maybe he was just a great guy to sit down and have a chat with.”

Hilbert was divorced and had no children, but he was very close to his nephew and his family, and they inherited his cache of fishing and other outdoor equipment.

In order to continue Hilbert’s outdoor legacy at Idaho State, an endowment has been established in his name: the Harrison “H” Hilbert Outdoor Endowment. It will be managed by the Idaho State University Foundation and donations are tax deductible. Thanks to a donor commitment, all donations will be matched up to $1,000. The goal is to raise $38,000 — about $25,000 has been raised so far.

The purpose of the endowment is to continue Hilbert’s innovative work in outdoor education by supporting the ISU Outdoor Adventure Center, the program he started in 1970. To donate to the endowment, go to this link: http:www.isu.edu/Hilbert.

“The endowment is a way to raise funds for outdoor program activities, and not just activities, but educational things,” said Swetnam. “(Hilbert) was very clear that he wanted outreach to children, to get people involved very early on. Also, to keep the gear up to date. Even to bring in experts who can give people knowledge. I know he brought in a couple of his mountaineering buddies over the years to do things like avalanche training and back country training…. The sky is really the limit in terms of the things the extra money can be used for.”