EverestHistory.com: Jim States

For some family tragedy is a crushing burden and for some it is endured and overcome. For Pittsburgh native Dr. Jim States overcoming his mother's death from cancer as a youngster led him to draw strength from his mother's struggle and his father's determination. He vowed he would make her fight a positive thing in his life, and somehow he did.

He and his sister basically raised themselves in the woods of Pennsylvania following their mother's death, according to Jim. A life in the woods meant climbing and for Jim those hills kept getting steeper and taller, culminating in his summit of Everest on May 14, 1983 as a member of a German/America expedition led by Gerhard Lenser. Among Jim's many other climbs were the ill-fated and tragic expedition to Nanda Devi which cost Devi Unsoeld her life, Makalu (1980), Kota Kinabalu, and Makalu (1992).

One of the side effects of his mother's illness and her occupation as a nurse was Jim's early interest in medicine. After being unable to obtain medical help as a teenager Jim vowed that he would grow up to provide that help to kids himself. He earned chemistry degree from Bucknell University in 1967 and graduated from Philadelphia's Temple University Medical School in 1971. In 1978 he established a private practice dealing exclusively with the treatment of teenagers and young adults.

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