Lost boy inspired books, movie
Used Boy Scout techniques to survive ordeal
PORTLAND, ME. Donn Fendler, who as a boy survived nine days alone on Maine’s tallest mountain in 1939 and later wrote a book about the ordeal, has died at 90.
Fendler collaborated with Joseph B. Egan on a book, Lost on a Mountain in Maine, that was required reading for many Grade 4 students in Maine. He also enjoyed visiting schools to tell his story.
He died Oct. 10 in Bangor, Me., after being hospitalized for failing health, family members said.
“He loved Maine. He loved kids. He loved telling his story to kids to help them keep their cool if they get lost,” said his niece, Nancy Fendler.
Fendler said he used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive on Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.
As a 12-year-old, Fendler got lost while hiking and made his way down the mountain and through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found about 50 kilometres from where he had started. Bruised and cut, starved and shoeless, he’d survived by eating berries. He had lost nearly nine kilograms.
The book became a children’s classic. A graphic novel, Lost Trail, Nine Days Alone in the Wilderness, was published five years ago. A movie is now in the works.
His family said his survival story “will stand forever as a testament to the mercy and miracles of God, faith in God, prayer and determination to never give up.”
Fendler never seemed to tire of recounting the tale to children.
“I tell every one of them they have something inside them they don’t know they have,” he told The Associated Press in 2011. “When it comes up to a bad situation, they’re going to find out how tough a person they are in the heart and the mind — it’s called the will to live.”
Fendler retired in Clarksville, Tenn., but had a summer home in Newport, Me. His family, from Rye, N.Y., was vacationing at Sebasticook Lake when he got lost.
Many feared the worst when Fendler became separated from the others on Katahdin, setting off a search by state troopers, National Guardsmen, paper mill workers, loggers and guides.
He later received a medal from U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House, was honoured with a parade and featured in Life magazine.
Fendler’s twin, Ryan Fendler, said the trauma of spending so many nights lost in the woods didn’t lessen his brother’s affection for Maine. He and his brother celebrated their 90th birthdays together in August in Maine.
“He had a great heart and a great sense of humour,” Ryan Fendler said, describing his brother as a natural-born athlete who beat the rest of the party to the top of Katahdin before starting down on his own.