ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RINER
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
Artist, world traveler, mountain climber and nature lover Lloyd Sumner packed more colorful adventures into his 52 years on Earth than most people might experience by living twice as long.
His life's goal was to "get as much enjoyment out of life as possible, while doing as little damage to the environment as possible."
Sumner died Friday in Manassas as he and his wife, Jean, were setting up for a craft show, according to family member.
A Carroll County native, Sumner traveled the world several times during a life guided by wanderlust and a thirst for adventure. He liked to use alternative forms of transportation, and launched one trip in 1980 by riding in a hot air balloon that departed from Riner Elementary School's front lawn.
During his journeys, Sumner wrote that he was attacked by a wild boar in Malaysia, chased by a rogue elephant in Thailand and confronted by an Australian motorcycle gang.
In the mid-1970s, Sumner led a cross-country bicycle trip on America's Bikecentennial trail. Two years ago, he completed a personal quest to climb the highest point in each American state, from uphill strolls in Kansas and Nebraska to a 17-day trek up 20,320-foot Mount McKinley in Alaska.
During the Alaska trip, Sumner said. he helped to recover the bodies of three hikers who died while climbing the mountain.
"The most important part was being in wild places. It was the emotional and spiritual renewal of being in the wilderness," he said after he returned from the last trip in 1994.
Academically trained as a computer programmer, Sumner published a book in the late 1960s on using computers to produce abstract art. But a conventional life was "too comfortable" for him.
"There's something about the American system that tells us we have to have a lot of security. I don't know why I am a little bit different," he once said.
"I think there is a little bit of adventure in everybody, but most of them just watch something on television and get their experiences that way."
In recent years, he and his wife worked as woodcrafters who fashioned bowls from unusual parts of trees that many traditional woodworkers might shun, such as burls and roots. They roamed the woods searching for unique pieces.
"Dream pieces," Sumner called his work. "We try to make wood immortal, make an item of beauty that people can keep forever."
In 1993, a wooden ornament created by the Sumners was hung on the White House Christmas tree.
Both were prominent members of the International Wood Collectors Society. They organized an international convention of that organization that brought about 500 members to Blacksburg in 1992, and edited a newsletter, "World of Wood."
His family has established the Lloyd Sumner Memorial Fund, which will be earmarked for the preservation of the Ecuadorean cloud forest, through the First National Bank of Christiansburg.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Lloyd Sumner traveled the world several times during aby CNBlife guided by wanderlust and a thirst for adventure.