Grace Dolbeck Leach Hudowalski (February 25, 1906 – March 13, 2004)[1] was an American hiker, the first woman (and ninth person overall) to hike all 46 high peaks of the Adirondack Mountains.
She was born in Ticonderoga, New York in 1906,[2] and was the youngest child of James Casper Leach and Alice Luella Dolbeck,[3] and grew up in nearby Minerva.
[2] In 1926, she married Ed Hudowalski, an electrical engineering student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,[2] and they settled near Troy, New York.
[2][3] After serving as president until 1951, she became the club's historian for the next fifty years, and wrote thousands of letters back and forth to other hikers to record their summits and learn about their trips.
[3] She was also a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, and a past president of the New York Folklore Society.