In the mid 1950's my grandfather, Carl S. Coler, was signed on as a "dollar a year" man working in Nepal. This was a post-war Federal program whereby a developing country could "employ" a retired Westinghouse executive to act as on site business consultant for the token fee of a dollar a year. Over more than a decade he lived and worked in places from Turkey, to South Korea, and finally Nepal. He was the founding member of Rotary International in Nepal. Forty years later my own father found that inaugural signature in the membership logbook for Rotary in Kathmandu.
Seven years after the summit of Everest had been claimed Carl, like many in Nepal, had come to know Sir Edmund Hillary personally, here introducing him as a speaker to the Kathmandu Rotary. There were many stories from those years on the road, but this one one I had never heard while Carl was alive. My grandfather lived another 29 years, dying in 1989 at the age of 101. This photo came to light only many years after his death. After a remarkable life, marked by prolific correspondence, Carl ironically left no memoir. So many great tales go down with our ship.
Seven years after the summit of Everest had been claimed Carl, like many in Nepal, had come to know Sir Edmund Hillary personally, here introducing him as a speaker to the Kathmandu Rotary. There were many stories from those years on the road, but this one one I had never heard while Carl was alive. My grandfather lived another 29 years, dying in 1989 at the age of 101. This photo came to light only many years after his death. After a remarkable life, marked by prolific correspondence, Carl ironically left no memoir. So many great tales go down with our ship.