Editor’s note: This obituary was originally published on Nov. 23, 2003.
Dr. John R. “Jack” Durrance, an accomplished physician who
achieved international notoriety for his mountain-climbing feats as
well as his expertise in hybridizing flowers, died Nov. 7 of
natural causes. He was 91.
Durrance was a colorful, irreverent man who conformed to the
exacting demands of medicine, botany and a large family, yet
rejected many aspects of polite society – speed limits in
particular.
He could be charming and engaging among the patrician crowds at
spring flower shows as well as with scruffy, unwashed expedition
climbers high in the Himalayas.
Durrance’s lifetime avocation was growing and hybridizing flowers,
starting with gladiolus, then tulips and finally irises. He
hybridized more than 30 types of irises, achieving one of the very
few true red irises and coming close to a true black iris. He gave
them such names as Buenos Iris or Gorby, after former Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev, for the red iris. He was elected
chairman of the International Iris Society and chaired three
American Iris Society conventions in Denver.
Durrance became one of the nation’s premier rock climbers, making
legendary ascents, such as the first ascent of the north face of
the Grand Teton and a daring, unaided rescue of a parachutist
trapped on the top of Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.
The greatest controversy of his life came during his 1939 attempt
on K2, the mountain in Kashmir that is the second-highest in the
world. Four expedition members died on the peak, and team leader
Fritz Wiessner blamed Durrance.
“I knew I was not responsible for those men dying. But I never
felt I could argue against Wiessner,” Durrance said in 1995. So he
returned to his medical studies at Dartmouth College in New
Hampshire and never defended himself. “I never felt anyone would
listen to me.”
The controversy swirled among climbing circles until 1994, when two
former officers of the American Alpine Club investigated the
incident and published their findings in a book, “K2: The 1939
Tragedy.” Authors William Putnam, the Alpine Club’s former
president, and Andy Kaufman, a former director, not only exonerated
Durrance but blamed Wiessner for the deaths.
During the K2 attempt, Chappel Cranmer, a teammate from Denver,
nearly died from pulmonary edema, but Durrance was able to save his
life. Cranmer’s family thanked Durrance by securing an internship
for him with Dr. James J. Waring, an international expert on
tuberculosis who founded the Webb-Waring Institute at the
University of Colorado Medical School.
Durrance moved to Denver for the internship, then took a job as a
pulmonary physician at the local veterans hospital. He became chief
of medicine.
He married Stella Coulter; bought the only house he ever owned,
east of Leetsdale Drive; and raised five children. With more than
an acre of land surrounding the house, Durrance planted his prized
irises from fence to fence.
His children recalled Durrance’s antics, sometimes finding him in
the garden at 3 a.m. with a flashlight.
“He could launch into a dirty joke on just about any subject that
came up in conversation,” said daughter Dee Dee.
Durrance loved fast cars and owned a stable of them, including a
rare Mercedes 300SL Gull Wing, which he eventually crashed.
“He’d drive us to school at Kent in his racing car,” said
daughter Charis, better known as “Worm.” “It had a tiny
windshield, so we sat on the gas tank and wore goggles. We’d arrive
fairly disheveled.”
Daughter Joanna, called “Bird,” recalled fishing trips to the
Green River in Wyoming. “It was an eight-hour trip, but we always
went over 100 mph. It took us only four hours. We loved it,” she
said, noting that Durrance rarely caught any fish but became an
expert bird hunter.
Joanna recalled the five children riding in their father’s
Cadillac, which he would swerve off the road to chase rabbits
across fields near Parker Road and Havana Street. “He also took us
mushroom hunting many mornings down where the Safeway is in Cherry Creek shopping center,” she said.
In addition to his widow, Durrance is survived by a son, John
“Ant” Durrance of Montpelier, Vt.; four daughters, Joanna
“Bird” Lacoursiere of Topeka, Kan., Charis “Worm” Durrance of
Denver, Dee Dee Durrance-Loughran of Hotchkiss and Margaret “Yum Yum” of Longmont; a brother, Dick of Carbondale; a sister, Ada
Greenwood of Boulder; four grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
Services are pending until iris season in May. Contributions may be
made to the Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York St., Denver, CO
80206; or to the American Alpine Club, 710 10th St., Golden, CO
80401.
