A service celebrating the life of John William Middendorf, IV, (Deucey), 64, of Tasmania, Australia, will be held at 2:00 PM Saturday, June 29, 2024 at the Potter Funeral Home in Westport, MA with Don Givler officiating.
John Middendorf was born on November 18, 1959 in New York City to John William Middendorf, II, and the late Isabelle Paine Middendorf, and he unexpectedly died in his sleep on June 21, 2024 in Little Compton, RI, where he was visiting family. He grew up in Connecticut, the Netherlands, and Virginia. He attended Dartmouth College and Stanford University, graduating with a mechanical engineering degree, which he used to design and manufacture rock climbing equipment first with A5 Adventures Inc., and later with D4, both of which companies he founded.
His innovative portaledge designs, prompted by the failure of the portaledge he was using in 1985 when caught in a life-threatening storm on a climb of Half Dome in Yosemite, have revolutionized big wall climbing by allowing multi-day ascents in all weather. A recent fine-tuning of the design, which he made open-source, allowed use by peaceful protesters seeking to save the old growth of Tasmania’s temperate rainforests.
John studied fabric architecture at the University of Sydney and received two masters degrees, one of Architectural Design from Harvard University and one of Teaching from the University of Tasmania. As a rock climber he excelled at big walls, making first ascents of many routes throughout the world, and was part of the first successful ascent of the Grade VII “The Grand Voyage” on Trango Tower in Pakistan, which is considered the greatest big wall in the Himalaya.
Though rock climbing was a lifelong passion, his wife and children were his true loves. In his wife Jeni’s words, “He was truly an amazing man: kind; gentle; brilliant; inspiring; innovative; a creator and a designer; loving; interested and interesting; generous; caring; an incredible father and an extraordinary human being. He will be greatly missed by so many and my children and I are grateful for the time we had with him; I know we were beyond blessed to have him in our lives.”
He taught high school mathematics, science, and robotics in the Tasmanian school system, and had worked as a river guide in the Grand Canyon for many years. He was a prolific writer, publishing hundreds of articles and several books on rock climbing, most recently a meticulously-researched two-volume history of its tools and techniques.
He is survived by his wife, Jeni, his son, Rowen, and his daughter Remi, as well as by his father, John William and his sister Frances, both of Little Compton, as well as by his brother Roxy Paine and wife Sofia of Red Lodge, MT, and his sister Amy Givler and husband Don of Monroe, LA. In addition to his beloved mother, he was also predeceased by his sister Martha.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Bob Brown Foundation at bobbrown.org.au.
There will also be a celebration of his life in Tasmania in the next few months. Of the thousands of tributes to John received this week, a common theme has been that he left the world a better place.