Located on top of a boulder along the Klamath River is a small plaque dedicated in memory to two men. It reads:
Mazama coach, teacher Zupan dies of heart attack
Don Zupan was an educator, adventurer and innovator. If there was ever a health-conscience health teacher, Zupan was the man.
The 49-year-old teacher and coach at Mazama High School in Klamath Falls died of an apparent heart attack Saturday while snowboarding with students at Mount Shasta.
He was an expert in the field of health education, worked out regularly and watched his diet, recalls former Mazama boys basketball coach Dan Fast. He was trim and checked his blood pressure regularly and it was important to relay that to kids. That's what makes this so shocking.
Zupan was Fast's assistant coach from the time Mazama became a senior high school in 1979 until taking over the Mazama girls basketball program in 1982. He continued in that capacity through 1985, launching the Vikings' Southern Oregon Conference dominance that lasted into the mid-1990s.
He worked with me for years, and when the girls job opened up, I encouraged him to take over the program, Fast says. I thought it would be a chance for him to develop his own identity. He was the kind of guy that could lead it into prominence.
Zupan, who was a member of some outstanding Klamath Union basketball teams in the late 1960s, stepped aside for a short while then returned as an assistant to Mazama girls coach Mike Kay for six seasons.
He and Rick Anderson were the first two guys to welcome me into the building when I got there, says Kay, who is now the girls basketball coach and a vice principal at North Medford. He was one of the top five basketball minds that I've ever had the pleasure of being with. He had an incredible amount of knowledge and passion for the game.
Zupan was a member of a statewide trout panel and was a fishing guide. He had a zest for life reflected by his sense of humor.
We were fly-fishing on the Williamson River when a thunder and lightning storm started, recalls Kay. He stood up in the boat with his rod and said, `Don't worry about that, I don't know of that many people ever hit by lightning.
When Mazama's football team earned a playoff trip to Scappoose -- northwest of Portland on the Columbia River -- last fall, it was Zupan who volunteered to chaperone the rooter bus.
He rode the bus all the way up and back in one day, Fast says. That's 12 hours. He was that kind of person. He loved kids. He was still a kid himself.
Zupan initiated an outdoor education class at Mazama and had taken a bus load of kids to Mount Shasta for a day of skiing and snowboarding.
According to a Mount Shasta Ski Park spokesman, Zupan became ill while he was on the Eagle Flight run on the resort's Coyote Butte Trail system.
He was transported to Mercy Medical Center in Mount Shasta where, he was pronounced dead of a massive heart attack at 11:38 a.m.
Interestingly, it appears that Raymond Bentley's birth and death dates are incorrect on the plaque. His wife, Marian, was born and died on the dates mentioned on the plaque. Raymond was born in 1919 and died in 1999. I located his grave on FindaGrave.com and he is buried at Eternal Hills Cemetery in Klamath Falls.