Volunteer Spotlight: Dr Katzman
By Sean Neely
Note from The Director: We were so happy to award Dr. Katzman a lifetime achievement award at the Climbing Festival this year. This essay below, written by another volunteer, Sean Neely, highlights some of Dick’s many contributions to climbing in Vermont. We are so grateful and honored to work alongside Dick; his care and contribution cannot be overstated.
Dr. Richard Katzman has been with CRAG-VT since its founding in 2003, when it was established to purchase and protect Lower West Bolton. That was one of the first outright acquisitions in the U.S. of private land specifically to conserve a climbing area by a local climbing organization (LCO). In those early days, the blend of different talents on the CRAG board was the key to its success. Dick discovered his knack for “getting to know challenging landowners, becoming the group’s diplomat statesman with an M.D. after my name.” He tried for two years working with State legislators to get Vermont’s private landowner liability law amended to include municipal land and ease local towns’ concerns about liability. That’s still a work in progress.
Dick’s most rewarding contribution to CRAG and Vermont climbing was his role in acquiring the Bolton Dome (the national Access Fund’s biggest project to date). He had climbed there in the 1970s and 80s before it was closed. Over the years, he kept in touch with the landowners, and when in 2017 they hinted they might be interested in selling, Dick sat down with them, swapped stories, had coffee, and the rest is now Vermont climbing history. Dick contributed funds supplementing the Access Fund loan to purchase the property and pay for costs to conserve the land as a permanently protected climbing and public recreation resource. Dick has also contributed a little to route development at the Dome. The Country Doctor’s Ramble, Forever Young, and just recently Go Lightly from the Ledge all get their names from Bob Dylan songs. The Dome acquisition transformed CRAG-VT into the modern organization that it is today, in no small part due to contributions from this old-timer.
Another important way Dick has contributed to Vermont climbing is by mentoring and supporting young climbers in his local school district and through the Kismet Rock Foundation in New Hampshire, especially kids who may not otherwise have had the opportunity to realize the benefits of rock climbing. “Climbing has given my life so much,” Dick says. He found that through climbing he was “much better able to deal with the stresses and strains of life.” Knowing how climbing helped him cope with several significant losses, Dick has told many people that for him it has been a way of meditation and healing. Giving that gift to others and supporting their development on the rock, and so in life, is an ongoing passion of the good country doctor. This is shown in his effort to establish the Vermont Climbing Academy, a non-profit organization whose mission is based on his experience with Kismet: “To provide young people who are functioning well but whose lack of economic resources would otherwise make it impossible for them to experience all that climbing has to offer – from the beauty of the natural world to the enhancement of athletic and problem-solving skills, teamwork, patience, humility, and compassion.”
As Dick grows into old age, that mission becomes more important. He says, “I stayed with climbing because it is fun, and because it has helped me deal with difficulties, both internally and in the wider world.” Dick also says, “I always thought it would be great to share my passion for climbing with people” and recognizes the “importance of young people trying to figure out how not to feel hopeless and helpless in this world, to become good citizens.”
Next big projects? Building terraces and retaining walls at the heavily used Left End of the Dome to stabilize the erosion there and updating CRAG trail signs. Dick has become the semi-official wood sign maker for CRAG, experimenting with fonts and finishes that work best in Bolton.
Having climbed far and wide over more than fifty years since his start at the Gunks wearing a swami belt, work boots and using a hemp rope, his partners mostly retired or gone, Dick usually top-rope solos these days when not teaching middle schoolers and his grandkids their climbing basics. Dick says his goal is to “descend the grades gracefully” and “reprise some of the wonderful moderate climbs I’ve done over the years.”
When you see Dr. Katzman, don’t forget to thank him for his many contributions to Vermont climbing!
