Death of Kenton Grua - forwarded post from Brad Dimock
Earl Perry
brilliant improvisatory kid. I remember him, all 135 pounds, rowing a
33 foot pontoon down the right of Hance at 4000 cfs, impaling a
stranded pontoon on the rocks with his motor frame - we were all
trying to learn what a river that size does with boats that size. He
grinned. We all grinned. We patched.
A motorman for Hatch initially, he was seduced by the grace of dories
and became a main man of the Grand Canyon Dories community. Known as
the Factor (he was a factor in any situation that impinged on him),
Grua was a founder and first president of the Grand Canyon River
Guides, and after about 14 years, had jusr reassumed the office. He
was a mover and boatman on the rowing speed-record trip in 1983 (see
Lew Steiger's story "Speed" in Christa Sadler's book, "There's This
River" for a suspenseful account). For the flavor of the man, see Lew
Steiger's interview in the 'boatman's quarterly review' 11:1 (winter
97 - 98).
From Brad Dimock (author of "The Doing of the Thing" and "Sunk without
a Sound"):
As most of you already know, Kenton Grua died Sunday. He had gone
for a mountain bike ride in the woods near his home. A hiker found
him curled up on the ground near his bike in the Schultz Creek area.
His helmet was cracked, he had a few bruises, and was unresponsive.
He was dead on arrival at Flagstaff Medical Center. The report from
the coroner is as follows.
There was apparently no head injury. There was a small tear in his
aorta and a loss of about 250cc. of blood. The cause of death was
myocardial infarction--heart attack.
This prompts two scenarios, the first being the more likely.
Kenton was biking on a steep trail, had a nasty wreck, hit hard.
Busted his helmet and tore his aorta on impact. He got back on his
bike and headed home. The tear bleed a bit, the strain of pedalling
may have contributed, the tear reached the heart, triggered an
arhythmia or fibrillation, and subsequent heart attack. Kenton was on
the flats when he laid down, curled up on his left side, and died.
The other possibility is a spontaneous tear of the aorta--not unheard
of--which is quite painful. In that case he may have tried to race
for home and had the wreck due to haste, loss of consciousness, or
the heart attack. We will probably never know exactly how it happened.
Michelle is home, at 3400 Shaffer Lane, Flagstaff, AZ 86004, phone
928 774-5352. She is relatively new to the Flagstaff area and the
boating community, and can use all the support she can get. Call or
stop by if you can, as often as you can. She wants to hear Kenton
stories from those who knew him and loved him.
A memorial service is planned Friday or Saturday in the Flagstaff
area. Another memorial is planned for the Fall Grand Canyon River
Guides meeting here in Flagstaff, on November 2. Michelle asks that
donations go to GCRG.
--
Brad Dimock Fretwater Press
1000 Grand Canyon Avenue
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001
928 774 8853 fax 928 779 9552 cell 928 853 2007
Ty
"Earl Perry" <ea...@idcomm.com> wrote in message
news:ce78d260.02082...@posting.google.com...
Geoff Jennings
number to a forum this public?
Geoff
--
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. - Edward
Abbey
"Ty" <tygu...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%nTa9.4245$kp....@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net...
Fred the Red Shirt
> Sad news, but do you think it's wise to posts peoples home address and phone
> number to a forum this public?
>
That is one of many reasons why you should edit out much or all of the
test when you follow up to a Usenet article.
The original author can cancel his article and re-post it without the
address and phone number. He cannot cancel yours. Admittedly, a number
of services do not honor cancels per se, but most or al of those will
still pull an article per the specific request of the author.
--
FF