Remembering Wray Landon

By Susan Traylor Lykes

I attended the memorial service for Wray Landon in Idaho Falls yesterday. It was a wonderful celebration of Wray and his life, with remarkable remembrances provided by Wray’s uncle, and friends Matt Lucia, Zahan Billimoria, and Brady Johnston.

Not long before my geographer great-uncle passed away several years ago, he had written, "It is said that when a young man dies in the Andaman Islands, his peers go to the top of a nearby hill and shoot arrows of protest into the sky.” The death of Wray Landon truly does make one want to shoot arrows into the sky. The world needs more people like Wray, not fewer— in the words of Jim Schulz on the "Friends of Big Wray" Facebook page.

Wray left a hole in many friends’ lives, but also in the work and lives at the Teton Regional Land Trust, where Wray was a Resource Specialist. You see, apart from the lasting friendships formed from working with someday every day, and the crushing loss felt personally by each member of the staff, the land trust was in the final two weeks of preparing an enormously extensive and detailed federal grant application to fund $1 million in land protection and restoration. The last two weeks had been set aside for Wray’s work, with a number of land trust employees having already completed their portions of the application.

After much consideration and discussion last Monday— the day after Wray’s death— the land trust decided to proceed with the grant application. Even with a staff in the depths of mourning, they knew that if the application wasn’t completed now, many of the matching projects would expire before another application deadline. It was either soldier on now… or start over pretty much from scratch.

I write this to honor Wray and to honor his colleagues, so dedicated to the open lands of our area that they would work through grief and loss to protect this place we all call home. I also write this to honor two other local conservationists, not formally affiliated with the land trust, who have pitched in to help complete the grant application in time for the March 5 deadline. Watch the local newspapers and the land trust website late this summer to see if this application— a fitting tribute to Wray— has been chosen for federal funding.

If you, too, would like to help: At the request of Wray’s family, the Teton Regional Land Trust has set up the Wray Landon Legacy Fund to further his work in the stewardship and science of protected lands. You can make a contribution to the Wray Landon Legacy Fund at Teton Regional Land Trust, P.O. Box 247, Driggs, ID 83422, or by going to www.justgive.org/giving/donate.jsp. Be sure to designate the Wray Landon Legacy Fund on your check or in the space provided on line.

To Wray’s family and friends: I join you in shooting arrows into the sky. Godspeed.

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About This Blog

Michael McCoy

Editor Michael McCoy is a native Wyomingite who, through no choice of his own, moved to Iowa (“the third greatest state in the nation,” he says) when he was only a few weeks old. After high school graduation, he beelined it back to the University of Wyoming, where he earned a degree in Anthropology and the nickname of “Mac.” In addition to his Teton-area editorial duties, Mac works for the Missoula, Montana-based Adventure Cycling Association and writes freelance articles and books about the outdoors. “But that’s enough about me,” he says. “This blog is about you. I will prime the pump with an entry now and then--but ultimately, we hope it will be our readers, both locals and out-of-staters, who keep the streams of conversation flowing.”

Contributing blogger Susan Traylor Lykes was born and raised in the Denver area, a third-generation Coloradan. She spent much of her childhood in the mountains, and took up fly fishing at the tender age of ten, wielding her grandfather’s old bamboo rod and Pflueger reel. After graduating from the University of Vermont, Susan earned a master's degree in Town Planning from the University of Montana. For the past decade, she has focused on nonprofit land conservation and land use, serving on the boards of the Land Trust Alliance, the Teton Regional Land Trust, and the Orton Family Foundation.
Susan and her husband, Mayo, call both sides of the Tetons home. They are enthusiastic travelers and outdoorsmen — hiking, skiing, fly fishing, and bird hunting.

Contributing blogger Jeanne Anderson is a Cheyenne native and graduate of the University of Wyoming who has spent the last 25 years as a writer, PR consultant, columnist, and editor. Her passions include hiking, cooking reading, traveling, community, and creativity (she’s in her third term on the Idaho Commission on the Arts). She credits her broad practical streak to her parents, who started the first travel agency in the Cowboy State—from them she learned “every bathroom in the world is down the hall and to the left.” Jeanne and her husband Peter started Dark Horse Books in Driggs in 1995; their two-year experiment lasted 14 years. Now out from behind the bookstore counter, she’s looking forward to many new adventures.