Centennial Spotlight: Angeles Chapter's Forgotten Grandfather, Willoughby Rodman

Portrait of Willoughby Rodman from History of the Bench and Bar of Southern California, compiled by Rodman and published in Los Angeles in 1909.

It is November of 1903 and a party of six Sierrans-Messrs. Force Parker, Clair Tappaan, R.B. Dickinson, Ross T. Hickcox, Thornton Kinney, and Willoughby Rodman-have packed high up into San Antonio Canyon in the first stage of a multi-day ascent of Mount San Antonio. The story of their adventures, including an account of a thrilling descent of the then trail-less Devil's Backbone during a furious windstorm, was penned by Rodman in the June 1904 Sierra Club Bulletin and makes for a fascinating read in its own right. But for the historian researching the beginnings of the Angeles Chapter, this article is even more important for two paragraphs unrelated to their climb.

'But I must mention one circumstance. By that campfire in a windy canon of the Sierra Madre the Southern California Section of the Sierra Club was born. An organization was completed and work planned. The object of the section is to forward the work of the Sierra Club in Southern California. It is strictly subordinate to the parent club . . . It will take no action not sanctioned by the directors, and will always work in the name of the club, and for the purpose of extending its influence and furthering its objects.

'I shall not at this time trouble the readers of the Bulletin with an account of the work performed by the section since its organization, but state that we hope in the future to accomplish even more.'

And then, mysterious silence. All the more mysterious since attorney Willoughby Rodman was not merely a passive club member grown temporarily zealous, but a full-fledged elected member of the club's Board of Directors, the first and only one from the Southern California area. This placed him in the ranks of such distinguished Bay Area directors as Joseph N. Le Conte, Professor William F. Bade, Professor George Davidson, William E. Colby, Edward T. Parsons, as well as the President of the club, John Muir.

A hint appears in the January 1907 Bulletin, in which changes in the club's bylaws were published, including the addition of new Article XII specifically authorizing the formation of a Southern California Section of the Sierra Club. The new entity's geographical boundaries were defined to include the counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego. A logical assumption is that the earlier attempt to form a southern chapter had been thwarted by a shortcoming in the club bylaws, finally rectified with the addition of Article XII.

And then . . . more silence.

Fast forward two-and-a-half years to 1909: The Sierra Club High Trip to Yosemite with John Muir had been a rousing success, and in the exuberance of that happy season three gentlemen from the Southland announced their intention to organize a Southern California Section of the Sierra Club. Several original copies of the post card notification that Willoughby Rodman, Clair S Tappaan, and Russ Avery so confidently mailed to local club members survive in the chapter archives. In part, it reads:

'On Thursday, September 9th, at 1:30 p.m. at Al Levy's Café, Third and Main Streets, Los Angeles, a reunion luncheon will be held, and immediately thereafter the organization of the southern California section of the Sierra Club will be perfected.

'All members of the Sierra Club and mountain lovers are request to be present and participate.'

At last, with the bylaws amendment in place, the formation of the first chapter in the Sierra Club seemed assured. Willoughby Rodman, still serving on the Sierra Club's board of directors, would finally see his dream come true.

With such an apparently bright future before it, a certain mystery surrounds the failure of 1909 effort. Our only hint of what happened is supplied by the recollections of Phil Bernays, the man who can rightly be called the 'Father of our Chapter.' In an oral history conducted by Dick and Jean Searle in 1968, Bernays recalled how Clair Tappaan related that after the aforesaid successful meeting at Levy's Café the initial Southern California section outing was planned for a climb of San Gorgonio Mountain. The scheduled date happened to fall on the hottest day of the year, resulting in only the leader showing up. Such was the ignominious end of this attempt to form a local chapter.

Two more years were to pass before a young retailer of art supplies, Phil Bernays, and fellow Sierran William Boland were to resuscitate and finally carry to fruition the movement for a Southern Section. After relating the sad story of failure to Bernays and Boland, Tappaan directed our founders to, you guessed it, Willoughby Rodman, who supplied them with the addresses of the members then residing in Southern California. Organizing postcards were again mailed, this time assuring everyone that they would not attempt to climb San Gorgonio.

About 75 club members met on the evening of November 1, 1911, of which the requisite 50 signed the petition to form a Southern California Section of the Sierra Club. A Local Excursions Schedule was prepared immediately, with the first outing conducted on November 12, a 13-1/2 mile walk up the Arroyo Seco, thence to Glendale via Sycamore Canyon (the course of today's Chevy Chase Drive). It seems only fitting that the 27 participants were led by Clair Tappaan, first Chairperson of the Executive Committee and one of the men who along with Willoughby Rodman originally attempted to form the first chapter of the Sierra Club in 1903.

Did Rodman exult in the fruition of his plans, or did he collapse with relief? We may never know; but with Bernays having assumed the mantle of 'Father of the Angeles Chapter,' surely Rodman deserves the sobriquet 'Grandfather of the Angeles Chapter.'