Nothing is more divine to Rad West ’62 than spending time with his four grandchildren.
Three girls, one boy. And every one of them gets spoiled rotten by Rad.
When the weather allows, he will set out on a hike near his home in Red Hook, N.Y. And Rad still considers himself an avid reader, having entered his 80s this past year.
“Eighty is the new 40,” Rad jokes.
It is when you have lived the life that Rad has.
Once known to his Christ School classmates as “Rumble,” Rad went on to attend Columbia, eventually getting a master’s degree in International Relations. He rose to the rank of First Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War prior to working 33 years for CitiBank. By his count, Rad lived in seven different foreign countries for international business, finally ending his career working the always-frenetic bond market in New York City.
“I don’t have much patience for heavy crowds these days,” he said of retirement.
Outside of work, Rad found time to author a 2014 book, “On Mountaineering,” which chronicled his own personal exploration of seven mountains in western Canada and the U.S. – Mt. Stewart, Yosemite, Mr. Rainier, Mt. Stupendous, and Mt. Styx, and two international mountains – Mt. Snowdown in Great Britain and Mt. Kenya in Africa.
He says that Bella Coola Valley in Canada remains his favorite climb for its “gorgeous, spectacular valley.”
Rad enjoys leafing through Christ School’s “The Galax” magazine and seeing how robust the Outdoor Program has become. Kayaking, climbing, backpacking & outdoor living, mountain biking, disc sports, and fly-fishing have been offered to the boys this year.
“I felt very strongly (when writing his own book) that I wanted to get the younger generation involved in the outdoors,” Rad said.
“I just wanted kids to experience the beauty of it.”
Rad was born in Jacksonville, Fla., and said he moved around quite a bit in his childhood. He found out about Christ School from a grandmother who was living in Hendersonville, N.C. Rad was a Greenie for five years.
Rad played five different sports either at a varsity or intramural level and was involved in a variety of clubs. He says his fondest memory from his senior year was being the school librarian, where he learned how to file and repair books.