Hiker Christensen Dies in Iraq

The Cherry Hill, NJ Courier Post of 16 January 2008 has a memorial piece written by Leo Strupczewski to honor Curtis Alan Christensen Jr., a United States Marine lance corporal who recently died in Iraq. It is titled "Mother recalls dedication of slain Marine."

The piece begins by telling the story of the beginning of Christensen's Appalachian Trail hike "a few years ago."

"He spurned the notion of beginning the trail at a tourist attraction in Georgia.

"The real start of the trail, he told his mother, was at the top of a mountain.

"So Mary Knight, though afraid of heights, drove her son up a winding, one-lane fire road. About two-thirds of the way up, there was a place to turn around.

"'He said, "I'll just walk from here,"' Knight remembered."

The article ends with the note that "In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the Appalachian Mountain Club Development Office, 5 Joy St., Boston, Mass."