Harold Beckwith was born December 4, 1944, in Louisville,
Kentucky, the son of Harold and Lorraine Beckwith. Harold
and his wife Patricia Patterson were killed in a plane crash on
an Alaskan glacier on September 6, 1977. According
to the National Transportation Safety Board, the victims' bodies
were never recovered from the glacier. A memorial stone
for Hal and Patricia was placed at the Graceland Memorial
Cemetery in Mitchell, South Dakota.
NY Times
September 10, 1977
ANCHORAGE, Sept. 9 (AP)—All 13 persons
aboard a twin‐engine plane bound from Iliamna to Anchorage
died when it crashed into 10,016‐foot Mount Iliamna about 200
miles southeast of here, according to state troopers.
A spokesman for the Rescue Coordination
Center at Elmendorf Air Force Base said that four members of a
rescue team reached the crash site yesterday after a
helicopter landed them 100 yards above the wreckage at the
7,500‐foot level of the volcanic peak.
Troopers identified those aboard the Alaska
Aeronautical Industries plane, as Mitchell Crandall of
Anchorage, the pilot; Gary Bible, 23 years old, of Iliamna,
co-pilot; Richard Hanger of Anchorage; Becky Gildner of
Anchorage; Merri Seals, 16, of Wasilla; Tom Old of Santa Fe,
N.M.; Jane and Paul Bendemire and their son Dan, of
California; Pat and Harold Beckwith of San Antonio; Thad
Minninger:of Iliamna and Dr. Michel H. Guerive'of Saintes,
France.
