ORONO, Maine — Longtime University of Maine librarian Francis “Frank” Wihbey died Tuesday in a fall on a hiking trail in San Diego.
Library staff said Friday morning that Wihbey, 65, had served as the government documents librarian for more than 30 years before his retirement last October.
Wihbey appeared to have fallen at least 100 feet down a “crumbling” Torrey Pines trail and likely died of internal injuries, the San Diego Union Tribune reported Thursday.
The newspaper said that a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department helicopter spotted the body of a man on a ledge near a trail on a 300-foot-high cliff. After a rescue team determined he had died, Wihbey’s body was transported by helicopter to the gliderport.