Tokyo student named Philip J. Otis Fellow

Takeshi Miyamoto, a Bates College sophomore from Tokyo, has been named a Philip J. Otis Fellow and will receive a $5,000 grant for research and travel to promote greater understanding of environmental issues and the connection between the environment and spirituality.

Miyamoto will climb Alaska’s Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak at 20,320 feet, in June 1998. He also will conduct interviews with local Native Americans and mountaineers who have climbed Mount McKinley — also known as Denali — to determine how the mountain and the act of “conquering” the peak have influenced the native culture and religion. Miyamoto’s project will conclude with a portfolio presentation and lecture to the Bates community in September 1998.

Miyamoto has been a rock-climbing instructor at Bates for new-student orientation trips. A graduate of Deerfield (Mass.) Academy, he is the son of Iwao and Yoko Miyamoto of Tokyo.

Established in 1996 by Margaret V.B. and C. Angus Wurtele, the Philip J. Otis Endowment commemorates their son, Philip, a member of the Bates class of 1995, who died attempting to rescue an injured climber on Mount Rainier in summer 1995. Otis was deeply concerned about nurturing a sense of responsibility for the natural environment, and the endowment sponsors opportunities for study, exploration and reflection by students, faculty and other members of the Bates community. The endowment also supports an annual lectureship on environmental issues and the spiritual and moral dimensions of ecology.