Susan Billingsley - Grand Canyon River Guides

Susan, Ryan, and Marijka, family boating on the San Juan – October 1985..be the swamper. So she didn’t get to have a boat. It’snot fair. But that’s the way it was.Steiger: I wonder if Ron Smith, him starting outwith Georgie, might have influenced him in that regard.Did he ever talk about her? And with Dick McCallum, Iguess he’d already…Billingsley: They’d already broken up.Steiger: When you guys showed up. Was that just acoincidence that you ended up working for Dick lateron, then?Billingsley: Well actually, that was because I rodehorses with his wife, Susie. We were in the hunt clubtogether, and the reason I started working there was theywere looking for somebody to manage the retail store,who wouldn’t go off and be a boatman. That was theirone big priority. Yeah. And I had two kids by then, and Iknew a lot about the river gear and everything like that.Yeah… Dick and Susie were great to work for. Susie wasa sharp businesswoman, but I know that she feels likethings weren’t so good. I know she felt like she got norespect as a part owner of the company.Steiger: But she was the one in the companykeeping the books and all that?Billingsley: Well, they were certainly a partnershipand she did her fifty percent share, but I know she feltlike, just generally, other owners and boatmen just didn’thave the respect. And I think that’s true, too. Thenwhen she’d go on the river, there was certainly thataspect, since she didn’t run all the time, she wasn’t reallya boatman. I know Sheila felt that way with Ron Smith,and that’s a tough position to be in: be one of theowners, but not be a boatman.Steiger: You know, Fred Burke was always bringingthat up, saying, “Look at the wives of everybody, all theoutfitters.” He’d say time and time again, “Those womennever get the credit where that’s due. There isn’t acompany down there that you can look at”—and hewould rattle off all those marriages: June Sanderson,Sheila, Dave Mackay’s wife Vicki, Pat Diamond, allthose guys. He would say, “Look at those guys…” whereeverybody worked really hard to make those companiesgo back then.Billingsley: Uh-huh. It was just a different feeling.They were small companies, and the boatmen werereally makin’ the companies. They were the ones downthere doin’ the work. It was really close-knit groups inthe early ’70s, late ’60s. It was all starting up at thattime. You know, Patrick Conley, all them were justgettin’ on the river, and all the people comin’ off fromVietnam, goin’ down and bein’ on the river and gettin’away from that horrible mess. [John] Sorweite and [Bill]Lattimer—all those guys. They were crazy. They weredown there to have a good time, for the adventure. Thepeople were just kind of there—they were making itpossible for them to be on the river. But the boatmenhad a great time.Steiger: I guess everybody didn’t necessarily layawake nights worryin’ about how good a time the peopleboatman’s quarterly review page 35