Beryl Markham - Walker Building at Penn State - State College, Pennsylvania - Etched in Stone on Waymarking.com

Pennsylvania State University alumnus Jeff Gockley ('97) is remembered with a dedicated park bench northwest of the Walker Building, home of the Department of Geography at the campus in State College, Pennsylvania. The cast bronze plaque on its backrest reads:

In Memory of Jeff Gockley
A map says "Without me you are alone and lost."

The cartographic quote is from a longer passage as noted by DoG News and Events, April 2016:

“A map in the hands of a pilot is a testimony of a man’s faith in other men; it is a symbol of confidence and trust. It is not like a printed page that bears mere words, ambiguous and artful, and whose most believing reader—even whose author, perhaps—must allow in his mind a recess for doubt. A map says to you, ‘Read me carefully, follow me closely, doubt me not.’ It says, ‘I am the earth in the palm of your hand. Without me, you are alone and lost.” Beryl Markham, West with the Night.

The book is "a 1942 memoir chronicling [Markham's] experiences growing up in Kenya (then British East Africa) in the early 1900s, leading to celebrated careers as a racehorse trainer and bush pilot there. It is considered a classic of outdoor literature and was included in the United States' Armed Services Editions shortly after its publication. In 2004, National Geographic Adventure ranked it number 8 in its list of the 100 best adventure books." (Source: Wikipedia) Markham was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west in a non-stop solo flight.

Address: Department of Geography Walker Building between Burrowes Road and North Atherton Street State College, PA Website: [Web Link]

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