Lyme
He was an avid hiker with a long list of hiking exploits, a passion he continued to enjoy even into his 80s. He held various degrees in geology and preservation, committing a large portion of his life to land preservation and the environment. Maddock also was an active member of the Lyme community, a Christmas tree farmer, a skier and an adventurer.
But most of all, Maddock loved the open air and the difficulty of the trail. The mountains of the Granite State were his calling. After he turned 80, he climbed New Hampshire’s 48 4,000-foot peaks for the fifth time.
Maddock, a 32-year resident of Lyme, died of cancer in his home on March 27, ending a near century-long love affair with New Hampshire’s White Mountains. He was 85.
“He lived for the outdoors,” said Skip Sturman, a friend and hiking companion who interviewed Maddock for a story that was published in Upper Valley Life in 2015. “I think a lot of what he ended up doing in life was a quest to be outdoors.”
Added Stephen Flanders, a former Norwich selectman and longtime hiking companion of Maddock: What “made him so special is that he had a strong awareness of everything outdoors. He was very knowledgeable about bird life, trees, topography. He could identify peaks in every direction. Another aspect was his love for storytelling. He had lots of stories for every inch of the trail.”
Maddock was born on March 6, 1933, to Drs. Stephen and Charlotte (Landis) Maddock of Boxford, Mass. He became a hiker at an early age, taking advantage of his parents’ cottage in Randolph, N.H. He went to The Putney School in southern Vermont, where he honed his skills as a woodsman and gained a love for singing, classical music and skiing. Maddock then attended Middlebury College for two years before transferring to the University of Colorado, where he completed a bachelor of arts degree in geology. He graduated in 1954.
Maddock returned east and received his master’s degree in geology from Harvard University in 1956. He later earned a Ph.D. in natural resource management from the University of Michigan in 1971.
In 1973, Maddock took an office job. He moved to Wayland, Mass., to work as an associate executive director of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Boston office, coordinating the club’s conservation efforts with other environmental groups. He later served as an environmental specialist for the North Atlantic Regional Office of the National Park Service. There, he helped develop an master plan for Acadia National Park that brought together inhabitants of Maine’s Isle Au Haut and visitors to preserve new trails and campsites.
But the outdoors continued to beckon. In 1986, Maddock retired early for the New England countryside. His wife, Margot, took a job teaching math at Hanover’s Richmond School. The couple settled on Slate Brook Farm in Lyme where Maddock began to plant and sell Christmas trees.
“He grew up in the country, similar to Lyme,” said Margot Maddock, who was married to Maddock for more than 60 years. “He always enjoyed being active, had always climbed. He was a social climber.”
Once in the Upper Valley, Maddock was constantly on the move. He immersed himself in the civic life of Lyme, serving as chairman of the town’s transfer station committee, as a selectman from 1988 to 1994 as well as a member of the town’s conversation commission, planning board, budget committee and home health agency. Maddock also was a ballot clerk, the town planning and zoning administrator and longtime fire warden.
Maddock thrived in the outdoor landscape of northern New England. He raced five times in the American Birkebeiner, a 50-kilometer ski marathon held annually in Wisconsin. He was a regular at the Stowe Derby, an annual ski and fat bike race at the Stowe Mountain Resort. But hiking was his calling.
“He had a succession of jobs which, on paper, look like a dream resume for anyone who was outdoors-oriented,” Sturman said. “And yet, many of his jobs kept him indoors. Over the years, I think that gnawed at him.”
Maddock’s first time climbing all of New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot mountains was in the 1960s, while he was living in North Carolina. He wouldn’t have thought of it, had a friend not offered him the challenge.
“A good friend of ours from Minnesota moved here to New England. The two families used to hike together,” Maddock said during an interview with Sturman in 2015. “He said, ‘I’m doing the 4,000-footers. I had never done them or even given them much thought, but I said, ‘Wait a minute. I’m in my 30s now. I can’t let this man get ahead of me.’ ”
At age 80, with Maddock going for his fifth time up the 4,000ers, his reasons were the same.
“It all began three or four years ago when my friends Pete Bleyler and Jim Wooster began doing the 4,000ers after age 70,” Maddock added in the interview. “I thought to myself, ‘Wait a minute, that’s a piece of cake.’ ”
Margot admitted she wasn’t much of a hiker until she met Maddock, but has since embraced the outdoors and learned to love it as much as he did. During that first September in the Upper Valley, Margot joined a hiking group out of Lyme’s Utility Club called the Granite Grannies — an all-female group that do weekly hikes around New Hampshire. Maddock was later inducted as one of the group’s male members.
“He had an amazing visual memory,” Margot Maddock said. “He would remember trails. He loved to sit up there. He was a summit-sitter. He liked looking out onto the mountains and being able to name them all.”
For Flanders, Maddock’s most impressive feat was his athleticism.
“His physical strength well into his old age,” Flanders said. “He set out to do all the 4,000 mountains, all 48. In my whole life, I’ve only climbed 41 of them. He turned 80 and decided to do it for the fifth time.”
Sturman said Maddock’s greatest feat was not only his love for hiking, or his accomplishments on the trail, but his ability to share a fondness for adventure with others.
“People were really drawn to hiking with him,” Sturman said. “People just loved being on the trail with him. He was good company, he was affable. … People just wanted to share the experience.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.