George Wendt, who turned a passion for white-water rafting into an international business, recently passed away due to complications from non-Hodgkins lymphoma/O.A.R.S

While most Americans might recognize a picture of George Wendt as the guy who played Norm on the TV show Cheers, outdoor enthusiasts knew another George Wendt: as a whitewater pioneer, and the founder of river company O.A.R.S. Wendt passed away July 9, 2016 in his 70s in California, after a luminous career in the outdoors.

Wendt started his career in Los Angeles as a middle school math teacher, but, after a 1962 trip through the now-flooded Glen Canyon, he tacked in a different direction, and became one of the senior river guides, pioneers, and rafting businessmen in the world.

"After the drowning of Glen Canyon I experienced a profound sense of loss and with it came the realization and sense of urgency that places like this need to be shared, preserved and protected for future generations," wrote Wendt. "It became my calling to deliver people into the wilderness and generate excitement for these wild places."

His company, O.A.R.S. was the first oar-powered rafting outfitter on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, and the company now leads river and hiking trips around the globe. Wendt was named as one of Paddler Magazine's Paddlers of the Century, and in 2012 Friend of the River awarded him the Mark Dubois Award for his efforts to protect, conserve, and preserve our wild waterways.

Wendt stressed environmental stewardship, and founded Friends of the River in 1973 to save California's Stanislaus River, and later the group that helped land the Tuolumne River's designation as a Wild and Scenic River. He was tall and slender with a calm demeanor.

I had an opportunity to swap stories with George last year about Glen Canyon, which my family ran in the late 1950s, and I ran into him again briefly above the Yampa River as he commemorated the 50th anniversary of the creation of Warm Springs Rapid, one of the gnarliest pieces of whitewater in the West.

Wendt was leading a group down the Yampa when, on the night of June 10, 1965, torrential rains sent a flashflood/landslide of material down a side canyon, pushing massive boulders into the river. Holiday River Expedition's Dee Holladay, who also recently passed, was on the river on a different trip. Wendt was surprised that his group survived the event, as they ran for their lives in the dark. Listen and watch Wendt's description of this life-changing event here.