First of all, thank you Bob Archbold for your heartfelt contribution.  When I heard John was in bad shape I got to Custer/Rapid City as fast as I could from Orlando.  I barely made it to his bedside in Rapid, but he was still lucid enough to know I was there.  He passed a day or two later in Hospice care.  He and I were always very different and would not have been picked as brothers, but we shared a love of the outdoors, nature, and an interest in people.  Climbing was out of the question for me.  

As I was attempting to round up Johns things I visited the Custer post office to change his mailing address so I could begin to handle his affairs.  When they asked me whose address I needed to change, I replied John Page, explaining that he had passed.  The clerk summoned the postmaster to talk to me.  He explained that John had been a fixture on the bench on the porch of the post office for years, spinning yarns for the tourists and providing guidance to the visiting climbers.  With tears in his eyes he said that John would be sorely missed.  A pretty nice legacy if you ask me.

Love you John,
Brother Bob

I first met John in around 1975 or 76. He would come to the Needles originally with Dick (Doc) Laptad from Wichita Kansas. Eventually John just stayed up here in the Black Hills. He first would camp out at Paul Muehl place along the highway going west out of Custer. The. He eventually went to Paul’s property on Highway 385 North of Custer. His typical attire was a pair of bib overalls in the summer. 

Summers of 77-80 I was a climbing bum hanging out in the Needles with several other climbers. John would be with us most days along with Paul Muehl. We would climb all day till we got tired. While most of wore shorts or long pants John would alway be in and climb wearing his trademark bib overalls. 

Tourist would always ask us what we were doing, especially if we were climbing near the Needles Eye. It came up by someone to say we were the Pinnacle Repair Team. John the went to a local T-shirt shop and had a bunch of hats made that said Pinnacle Repair Service on them. I don’t know where my hat went from back then but John always had his. 

john always was positive support on a climb. If you were on a scary lead of a climb a d starting to get scared John would calmly talk to you until you got composed again.  It then if you fell off a climb you would need to expect some razing. I should know I got razed by John on many occasion. 

The  Needles Area was lucky to have two John’s. The first was John Raeck who created Poet’s Table. He was also know. Has the Vagabond Poet or Sylvan Lake John. He was a retired farmer from Wisconsin. Then we had John Page.  John’s Jump was named for John Page since he was the first to do it. It was always fun to take some top climbers of the day there and watch them balk at the jump. Going a Ross was the easy part, coming back was the hard part. John, Paul and myself had a lot of laugh at climbers on John’s Jump. 

John took my it upon himself to become the Caretaker of the Needles. Many of us that were climbing bums through the 70’s and 80’s. Now have real jobs. John went to  Black Hills State University to teach economics. He did that for about 10 years and I would still see him in the summers while I would go climbing in the Needles. After Black Hills State University he went to work in construction. These days I didn’t see John as much. 

John would go to special places like Poet’s Table and put a fresh coat of paint on the tables, chairs, and cabinets. He would do this at his own expense. John had a great love for the Needles area and the History of the climbing in the area. When a climber would look lost trying to find a climb John would be their guide and walk them to the base of the climb. He helped a lot of lost climbers. 

I was gone out of the area when I heard of John’s passing. By the time I heard all the Memorials were over. It was a sad day when I heard. First Paul Muehl died, the. Loretta Muehl had a freak accident and died, then John passed. I just recently came across this site and thought I would put my two cents in