Major local accomplishments in 2023
Helping a courageous blind U.S. Navy veteran climb the world’s tallest mountain was a family affair for Keith Hill of Farragut, and his wife, Karen Millsaps Hill, who went to Mt. Everest Base Camp (just under 18,000 feet above sea level) in Nepal (April 2-22) to support their son, 2004 FHS graduate Bryan Hill (pictured left at Base Camp) and the friend he’s assisting, former Naval Petty Officer Lonnie Bedwell (center) from Indiana, as Bryan and Bedwell sought to conquer mighty Mt. Everest on behalf of a cause he and friend, Michael Neal (right), co-founded called Sightless Summits. Needing about 13.5 hours from Mt. Everest Camp 4, “the High Camp,” which itself is more than 23,000 feet above sea level, to reach the 29,032-foot summit, Bryan, Bedwell and Neal did so “at 6:10 our time this morning,” Monday, May 22, Keith said in a phone interview that evening. “Our son’s text at 6:10 this morning read, ‘Standing on top of the world, Everest summit.’” They were joined by professional mountain guide Ryan Waters “and a guy from Canada” to reach as a group of five, Keith confirmed. Meanwhile, Bedwell became just “the fourth blind person to summit Everest,” Keith said. Still seeking to climb, Bryan, Bedwell, Neal and the group sought to reach the peak of an adjacent mountain, Lhotse, “which is the fourth highest mountain in the world (27,940),” Keith said about their climb Tuesday, May 23. That attempt made Bedwell “the only blind person to do both mountains on the same climb,” Keith said. “Lonnie is doing what he does for the Blinded Veterans Association. ... Not long ago he kayaked 225 miles through the Grand Canyon.” Bryan, Bedwell and Neal have climbed other high mountains worldwide “in training for summiting Everest and Lhotse this year,” Keith said.
• Other major accomplishments of Farragut and former Farragut citizens in 2023 includes Monica E. Peek, MD, the Ellen H. Block Professor for Health Justice in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago who was elected to the latest National Academy of Medicine class. She’s an FHS graduate from the mid-1980s who has been recognized for her “international leadership in reducing health disparities through research on how structural racism and the social determinants of health perpetuate disparities among African Americans” according to a National Academy of Medicine press release.
• Having recently received a prestigious international award, Stan Davis of Brookmere subdivision, a retired scientist and Corporate Fellow Emeritus at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, recently was awarded the Joining and Welding Science Award from the Joining and Welding Research Institute at Osaka University, Japan.
The award “commends researchers who have contributed internationally outstanding achievements in the science of joining and welding, and who have contributed significantly to the development of joining and welding science,” stated a press release from JWRI.
• A high school senior living just outside of Farragut has accomplished a feat rarely realized even nationally, having earned all 138 Boy Scout Merit Badges. Zachary Gerber, a home-schooled student connected with Christian Academy of Knoxville, completed the rare feat as a member of Boy Scout Troop 87 after recently earning his Bugle Badge.
* Blye Allen, then a Christian Academy of Knoxville sophomore, was crowned Miss Teen Tennessee USA 2023 March 11 in Clarksville.
