Santa Monica Resident Receives National Sierra Club Award

SAN FRANCISCO - Sept. 15, 2001 - Santa Monica resident Andrew Smatko was among those receiving national awards from the Sierra Club this year.

Smatko received the Francis P. Farquhar Award, which recognizes achievement in mountaineering. Smatko was honored for his more than 40 years of achievements as a mountaineer and author of mountaineering books.

Since 1953, Smatko has made more than 1,800 ascents in the Sierra Nevada. He prepared the Mountaineer's Guide to the High Sierra, which was published by the Sierra Club in 1972, and also helped revise the 1954 book, A Climber's Guide to the High Sierra.

Smatko managed all this and more while raising a family and maintaining a successful medical practice. He continues that practice today, and an occasional climb as well, at age 83.

The Sierra Club, which was founded in 1892 by John Muir, is the country's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization. It currently has more than 700,000 members.