Brookfield grad found man being mauled by grizzly
By JODY L. MAYERS
Waukesha Freeman Staff
BROOKFIELD – Armed with a stuffed grizzly bear in one hand and a package of Teddy Grahams cookies in another, 19-year-old Amy Gray made her way to St. Johns’s Medical Center in Jackson, Wyo., Thursday to visit the man she helped save after he was mauled by a grizzly bear.
“He was really in good spirits and the happiest bear attack victim I’ve ever met,” Gray said during a telephone interview Thursday.
Gray, a 2006 Brookfield Central High School graduate, encountered a mother grizzly bear and three of her nearly adult young while driving a chuck wagon with a fellow coworker Wednesday morning at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
“I noticed the bears all standing on their hind legs so I slammed on my brakes which scared them away and I tried to grab my camera,” she said. “At first I thought I was lucky to see them so close until I saw a man running down a cliff.”
That man, who saw the victim being attacked, helped Gray and her co-worker get him into the truck and drive back for help.
“He was bleeding pretty bad and had chunks of flesh missing from his behind and thigh and his back was chewed up,” she said. “He is lucky to be alive. I was told one of the bites was an inch from puncturing his lungs but his injuries were all external.”
Steven Gray talked to his daughter after the attack Wednesday morning and was stunned by the event his daughter unfolded to him over the phone.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “I was scared for her, but at the same time happy about what she had the guts to do.”
Grand Teton National Park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said the victim of the bear attack, 54-year old Dennis Van-Denbos of Wyoming, was on his way back from a hike when he noticed an elk in distress.
“As he got closer he noticed the bear and her cubs feeding on the carcass,” she said. “That is when she responded in a defensive matter.”
Skaggs said elk are seen regularly throughout the park, especially this time of year when they birth their calves.
“The mother bear can become defensive if she feels threatened or is surprised,” she said. “We do know of this particular bear, and she has never caused problems in the past. (VanDenbos) just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The area of the attack as well as the service trail will be closed until further notice, Skaggs said.
Amy Gray, who will be a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point studying to be a dietitian, said she will never forget what happened during her 2007 summer job.
“I was just running on adrenaline,” she said. “It was the scariest moment in my life.”
Steven Gray said his daughter demonstrates the type of qualities that would propel her in the direction of her most recent deed and said it is no surprise.
“For her senior trip while all her classmates decided to go to Florida, Amy asked my wife (Caron) and I if she could go to Tanzania to help orphans whose parents have died from AIDS,” he said. “That’s just the type of person she has always been.”
Caron Gray who said her daughter has a passion for the outdoors said she and her husband will think twice when they take a highly anticipated bear tour to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park to visit Amy in August.
“The funny thing is, she was nervous about bears before she took this job and I told her it was nothing to worry about,” she said. “Of course when she called to tell us what had happened I felt awful. I felt like I was setting her up to be bait. You never think something like this will happen. I’m so proud of her.”
Amy Gray said the memory alone is not enough for her.
“It’s my first summer away from home and this happened,” she said. “I think I’m going to get a grizzly bear tattoo to remember it by.”
