Related Friends
Mosier, Oregon 2017
Arlene Burns
Photographer/Kayaker: Mosier Mayor, Oregon
I live in a small town on the Columbia River in Oregon far removed from my past life in Chicago and the East-Coast. The current mayor of Mosier, Oregon was someone I had briefly met several years ago at a party.
When I built a house not far from hers, she befriended me on Facebook and socialized more and more when we discovered our mutual interests in photography and connections with National Geographic magazine.
She invited me to stay at her home to cat-sit while she traveled the world in the winter months of 2008. As I worked in her office one day, I noticed a photograph of a young Arlene Burns that was eerily familiar. It was a 8.5×11 print made on Kodak RC paper and it had a black border that looked very much part of my signature 40 years ago. I studied it. There was a familiarity in the picture, never thinking that it could be mine and then put it out of my mind.
Years go by as our neighborly lives intertwine into good friendship. It was she who introduced me to Walter Ordway who was visiting her and ended up being kicked out because of his irritating dog. Walter and his loud dog came and stayed in my tepee. It was during those 10 days that he spent with me, the countless stories he told me of his travels that inspired my first attempt in writing a movie script.
One day in the summer of 2009, we ran into each other in San Francisco and she hitched a ride back to Oregon with me. During the long drive, we shared some of our life stories and somehow the name Penny NickeI got mentioned. She was a Young Life intern working in High-Schools south of Chicago and befriended me. She, John White and John Howard were all recent graduates of Wheaton College who I had a connection. A year later, I ended up attending this same school. As it turned out, Penny Nickel started teaching at a college in North Carolina where Arlene attended. It was Penny Nickel, said Arlene who encouraged her to pursue her passion in kayaking.
That little nudge transformed Arlene’s life. She would go on to became a world-class kayaker, traveled the globe as a river guide, became a devout naturalist and photographed for companies like Patagonia. Her charisma and expertise with a paddle also landed her as Meryl Streep’s stand-in in the movie The River Wild
Thrilled by our newly discovered connection, we Googled and sadly found her obituary dated one year earlier.
The kicker with all this was that we had actually met in a Wilderness Camp called Honey Rock 45 years ago when Arlene drove a group of students from her Montreat-Anderson College. That picture with the black border, gone missing since she renovated her home, could have been mine after all.
It is a small world!
1980’s DECADE
INDULGING DEFIANCE: Photography gave me wings but also a sense of boundless creativity. This was a decade of independence, anti-establishment. It was a decade that avoided entrapment, both stylistic and accomplishment,. an era of exploration and renaissance.
2000’s DECADE
HEAT’S ON: A decade of transformation. The dawning of the age of Aquarius. Water turning to steam. Fruition from the quest was liberating. It was a decade that exchanged ambition for the magic of the unknown.
QUEEN & EM
NEW WORK: In 1980, I was on a year-long assignment on Taiwan for National Geographic. It was a time where the island, in fact, the whole world, was in the wake of an awakening giant, China.
WADI-RUN, JORDAN
NEW WORK: Enter to see photo: This is a work in progress page. SUBSCRIBE for the latest stories, blogs and (if I’ve taken pictures of you in the last 50 years) don’t miss friendship updates. Thank You!
Buey Grossman
BABY BUEY
A future blog about my bird name Baby and Buey Grossman will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2010.
Steve Saint
ENTREPRENEUR, MISSIONARY
A future blog about missionary, entrepreneur, pilot and writer Steve Saint will be completed. Enter now to see photos. Since 1972.
Rebecca Collett
PHOTOJOURNALIST
A future blog about Rebecca Collette will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1982.
Jim Grossman
Jim Grossman, 56, died May 30th, 2022, doing what he loves, kayaking. John Kerry, the godfather of Jimmy’s son Buey, said: “He paddled into a water hole and never came out.” The news hit me hard in the waking hours on the opposite side of the world …
Bob & Marilyn Thorne
ANOTHER FAMILY
Future blog page about Bob & Marilyn Thorne will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1994.
Jim Ealer
PROGRAMER
A future blog about the late Jim Ealer will be completed here. Enter now to see photos. Circa 2004.
Dennis Obrian
CHIROPRACTOR
A future blog about Dennis Obrianwill be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2002.
Joel Chusid
AIRLINE EXECUTIVE
Future blog page about Joel CHusid will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1994.
Ron Jamis
FOUNDER OF JAMIS BIKE
A future blog about Ron Jamis will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2003.
Mike Tharp
REPORTER/EDITOR
Future blog page about Mike Tharp will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2010.
Ryan Abeel
STAR MOTHER
Future blog page about Ryan Abeel will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Circa 1995.
Wyatt Miller
WINDSURFER
A future blog about Sam Moseswill be added here. Enter now to see photos. Circa 2001.
Sylvie Rebbot
PHOTO EDITOR
Future blog about Sylvie Rebbot will be completed. Enter now to see photos. Since 2001.
- 541-380-0907
- sacredridgejc@gmail.com
- P.O. Box 994 Mosier, Oregon 97040
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©JOHN CHAO All rights reserved