Federal wildlife director dies of heart attack on Whiteface

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October 10, 2008

By KIM SMITH DEDAM The Press Republican Fri Oct 10, 2008, 12:00 AM EDT

WILMINGTON -- A visiting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official died Wednesday after suffering a heart attack on Whiteface Mountain.

Robert Ashworth, 49, who was based in Washington, was on a group field trip led by a biologist from the Department of Environmental Conservation.

The Wildlife Service is holding an annual meeting of program and regional directors from across the nation in Lake Placid.

The group had driven up the mountain highway, Olympic Regional Development Authority spokesman Sandy Caligiore said, and Ashworth was on the walkway.

"He was climbing up to the summit when he had a heart attack," Caligiore said.

Members of the Ski Patrol, who work on Whiteface Memorial Highway in summer months, performed CPR and tried to resuscitate Ashworth using an Automated External Defibrillator, to no avail.

DEC spokesman David Winchell said the group had scheduled the field trip to see partnership projects that Fish and Wildlife has with DEC, one of which is the Bicknell Habitat Project on Whiteface.

"The group had arrived at the parking lot near the top of Whiteface. Some were going to the summit by elevator, and some were heading up the walkway. Mr. Ashworth started up the walkway and collapsed."

The Wilmington ambulance responded.

"He was pronounced dead at the scene," Winchell said. "DEC forest rangers assisted in the recovery of the body and the State Police investigation."

U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Kyla Hastie said Ashworth was the deputy assistant director for business management and operations in Washington and had joined the federal Wildlife Service in 1999.

He had earned a master's degree at Saint Michael's College in Vermont and had a history degree from the State University of New York.

He lived in Bristow, Va., Hastie said, and was married with three children.

kdedam@pressrepublican.com