DENVER — Sitting across from 100-year-old Dick Jessor as he peruses old photos that hang from the wall of his Boulder home can you give an idea of the life he's lived.
“I’ve done some well-known peaks around the world,” Jessor said. “This is the summit of Kilimanjaro in Africa.”
Most of the photos are of Jessor mountaineering, a hobby he picked up from a friend in his 60’s. Jessor has climbed in the Himalayas, Andes, and across the U.S as he’s ascended past 20,000 ft. several times. It’s also a hobby he credits to his time in the Marine Corp, as he’s able to stare fear in the eye without batting his.
“What really is the thrill of climbing is the doing it. And there’s always some uncertainty,” he said. “I see hundreds of people walking up Everest and then I’ll think of the war.”
Jessor fought in the battle of Iwo Jima after enlisting in the Marine Corps in his early twenties. He says the only reason he joined was because the door to the Navy recruitment office was closed.
It was the most uncertain five weeks of his life as he and his squadron encountered relentless fire and bombings.
“It was a matter of thinking that every day was the end of it,” Jessor said, hands trembling. “And so I wrote to my parents and said goodbye and thanked them for all they had done and told them that I didn’t think I’d get off the island alive.”
It was a letter Jessor says his mother kept until her dying day, and one that would ultimately change the entire trajectory of his life.
“One morning into the battle, maybe about eight or nine days, I got up from my foxhole and looked over and there was a dead Japanese nearby. So, I walked over, pulled up his shirt, and I saw he had letters in his pocket. And in that instant I thought I have letters in my pocket. This guy is just like me. We share the same humanity. What am I doing here? Why am I trying to kill this person? And it was an epiphany for me because in that moment, I made the decision I would make my life have a purpose.”
That purpose began when Jessor returned from the war and walked onto CU Boulder’s campus, becoming a professor and renowned psychological researcher. It’s because of Jessor that Problem Behavior Theory exists today.
When he retired in 2021, Jessor became CU’s longest-tenured professor in history at 70 years.
But that’s only where his accolades began. In his later years, Jessor became an avid climber, and marathon runner as he’s completed the BOLDERBoulder more than 30 times, and the NYC marathon 8 — all since the age of 70.
In a way, he credits it all to his time in service as he’ll be honored alongside other veterans at this year’s BOLDERBoulder Memorial Day ceremony.
“Having survived that, I’ve always had the sense then, if I could survive evil, I could survive anything,” he said.
We often say when one door closes another opens. It’s almost poetic that a closed door to the Naval recruitment office opened the door to the rest of Jessor’s life.
“I would say that it has been an exciting and rewarding adventure,” he said smiling.
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