Their final book was a collection of fiction and essays: A Fine Kind of Madness: Mountain Adventures Tall and True published a few months after his death.

[9] Pursuing a more stable career, Waterman worked as an economist for the Washington Chamber of Commerce from 1955 to 1958, then was hired as legislative aide and speechwriter for the US Senate Minority Policy Committee.

[10] After Nixon lost the 1960 presidential election, Guy received an offer to write speeches for the president of General Electric in New York City.

Connections between corporate and political work being somewhat fluid at the time, he was asked to write a first draft of a speech for Dwight D. Eisenhower when the ex-president headed Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company.

[12] Waterman signed up for rock climbing instruction offered by the Appalachian Mountain Club at the cliffs 90 miles (140 km) north of Times Square called the Shawangunks.

With son Johnny he began exploring local ice routes, first in Connecticut and then in the famously steep-sided gullies of Huntington Ravine on New Hampshire's Mount Washington.

[14] On June 19, 1969, his son Bill, on a western adventure that involved hopping freight trains, lost his leg in a railroad yard accident in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In 1993, Stackpole Books released their Yankee Rock & Ice, chronicling first ascents and the personalities who made history on the Northeast's cliffs and icefalls.

[21] In 1981 when the Appalachian Mountain Club launched its trail-adopter program, the Watermans signed up for Franconia Ridge, one of the most popular alpine trails in the Northeast.

After Guy's death, Laura and some friends founded The Waterman Fund,[24] a non-profit that fosters the spirit of wildness and conserves alpine areas of Northeastern North America through education, trail rehabilitation, and research.

The Guy Waterman Alpine Steward Award is given out annually to a recipient who has demonstrated a commitment to protecting the physical and spiritual qualities of the mountain wilderness in the Northeast.