Family Of Missing UW Professor Launches Memorial Fundraiser

SEATTLE — The family of Dr. Sam Dubal, a University of Washington professor who went missing while hiking in Mount Rainier in early October, has launched a fundraiser to help create a fellowship fund in his memory.

Search and rescue teams began searching for Dubal on Oct. 12, when he was reported overdue from in the Mowich Lake area. Daily searches included ground teams, canines, drones, infrared cameras and helicopters. The search was temporarily suspended on Oct. 23, due to severe weather. According to the National Park Service, the operation resumed Oct. 25, but Dubal has not been found.

The University of Washington, where Dubal worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, posted an update on Oct. 26:

After days of determined and robust effort, no sign of Sam has been found by the search and rescue teams. He is beyond reasonable expectation of survival in the environment of the slopes of Mt. Rainier in October. Although there will be a final aerial search and another check of local medical facilities, the Dubals believe that Sam “…has merged with Mother Mountain. In all likelihood, he is in the arms of the Goddess.”

The same day, one of Dubal's sisters posted on social media, writing that "after a thorough search, the outer limits of time for survivability have passed."

On Wednesday, Dubal's family created a GoFundMe page, seeking to raise enough money to establish the Sam Dubal Fellowship Fund at the University of Washington and UC Berkeley to "support the training of individuals and projects that advance a collective mission toward an ethical world."

Within a day, donations had already exceeded $15,000 of a $33,000 goal.

Read more about the fundraiser on GoFundMe.

Editor's Note: Patch is a GoFundMe promotional partner.