CSW Alumnus David Smullin '71 Returns to Alaska to Teach Nordic Skiing
Oregon resident and CSW alumnus David Smullin '71 reached out to the Alumni Office to share a recent story written about him in the Bend Bulletin, central Oregon's local newpaper.
After graduating from The Cambridge School of Weston in 1971, David went on to study biology and soon found himself working and studying in Fairbanks, Alaska during his graduate school years. Living in Alaska from 1977 to 1986, David attended the University of Alaska, where he earned a master’s in biology and a doctorate in physiology.
In Alaska, he landed a job as a research biologist, working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a project researching the bowhead whale. For two spring seasons David camped, paddled, and studied in the area of Point Hope, Alaska, forming a strong bond with the location and an even stronger bond with the Eskimos who call Point Hope home. For one of the spring seasons, David worked as a member of an Eskimo whaling crew and was "unofficially adopted" by a local family.
The 61-year-old nordic ski coach from Bend, Oregon recently returned to Point Hope as part of the Skiku program, in which ski coaches spend a week each April teaching nordic skiing to kids in rural Alaska. The recent trip afforded him a chance to reunite with the Oktollik family, with whom he was part of a whaling crew in 1979!
Click HERE to read the full article about David's return to Alaska.
CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.