Schiller's Body Recovered from Deep Crevasse

The body of research associate, Paul K. Schiller, dead since he fell into a crevasse while skiing Sunday afternoon at Tuckerman's Ravine, was recovered yesterday by a veteran band of mountaineers.

He will be buried today in a simple private funeral at North Conway.

Schiller, a former professor at the University of Budapest, had been conducting special research at the Psychology Laboratory on a two-month leave of absence from the Yorkes laboratory of primate biology at Orange Park, Florida.

Joseph Dodge of the Appalachian Club, who led the rescue crew in its risky task, said it was Schiller's first visit to Tuckerman's Ravine, and that he was not a proficient skier.

Dodge said Schiller had stopped skiing about 75 feet from the lip of the headwall and then had slipped gradually until he was carried over the edge into a torrent of water that coursed under the snow cover.

"He must have died instantly," Dodge said this afternoon in describing the rescue. "There was a deep cut over his left eye and the scalp was torn."

A crew of eight, which had dug tunnels through the snow below the headwall lip last night, found nature had aided their work. A high over-night temperature widened the snow tunnels and the searchers sighted the body after three hours digging today.

"We tied ourselves together with ropes," Dodge related. "All of us wore ico creepers on our shoes to prevent slipping. We had to watch a huge hunk of ice directly overhead for fear it might crash down on us."

When the body was located a grappling iron was lowered and hooked onto the ski clothing. Then ropes were tied around the legs and the body hauled out of the tunnel. A fresh crew was called in to carry the body down on a stretcher to Pinkham Notch, two miles distant.

Worked with Professor Skinner

Schiller, as a guest of the Psychology Lab, had been testing learning in fish, and working with Professor Skinner on conditioning. He had arrived at Harvard in the first week of April, and had slightly over a month to go before his leave of absence from Yorkes expired.

He came to the United States two years ago, and soon joined the Yorkes laboratory as research associate.