Bakewell, Anderson, 1913-1999.

Anderson E. Bakewell led a full, adventurous, and courageous life. Among other pursuits, he was a scientist, a Jesuit priest, a mountain climber, a missionary, a chaplain, and an explorer. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1913, into a very prominent family. He graduated from Saint Louis University in 1937, and then joined an expedition to Mexico to collect reptiles and amphibians for a scientific study at the University of Michigan. He entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1942, and he soon volunteered for missionary work in India. While in India, he worked with other Jesuit studying snakes and developing antivenom for snake bites. He was ordained a Catholic priest in Calcutta in 1951. In 1939, Father Bakewell had made the first ascent of Cristobal Colon, the highest peak in the Columbian coastal range, and in 1941, he was in the first party to climb Mt. Wood, in the St. Elias Range, Yukon, then the highest unclimbed peak in North America. In 1950, he participated in the first attempt to climb Mt. Everest from the south. Father Bakewell returned to the United States in 1955, first helping to raise money to build a Jesuit retreat house and then serving as assistant pastor at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown (Washington, D. C.), where the Kennedys attended Mass. In 1967, he volunteered for a mission to Alaska where he had a 35,000 square mile parish, ministering to four churches and three pipeline camps, twice carrying out rescues at 70 degrees below zero. Severe arthritis forced him to relocate in 1978 to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he served as chaplain of a Carmelite Monastery. He remained in New Mexico until his death on October 13, 1999, after an extended battle with cancer.