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Dr. M. Halim Dalgin a 58-year-old Adana, a Turkey native living in Mountain Top, Luzerne County, had been climbing a mountain near the country's southeastern border with Iran, multiple outlets report.
On his Facebook page, Dalgin said he was making a pilgrimage to the top of Mount Ararat (also known as Mount Ağrı or Büyük Ağrı Dağı) while traveling the Silk Road. The mount is 5,165 meters or 16,945 feet, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
After reaching the summit on Saturday, July 20, bad weather made descending difficult and one member of the group broke their leg Hurriyet Daily News reported.
Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency and National Medical Rescue used unmanned aerial vehicle-supported search and rescue operations in the region to locate the bodies of Dilek Gökbulak and Muhammed Halim Dalgın at 4,900 meters, frozen on a glacier plateau, as Demiroren News Agency reported. They were recovered around 7:30 a.m. on Monday, July 22, according to the outlet.
Dr. Dalgin was on a sabbatical for the past year, researching sustainable food supply chains and traveling, said Kutztown University officials in a statement.
"Dr. Dalgin embraced recent accreditation standards focusing on societal impact, which he included in his economics courses and in his research as well; evidence that he continued to explore at the intellectual level, as well as in his life as an outdoorsman," administrators said.
He joined KU's faculty in 2008 in the Department of Business Administration, according to the school. He was a 1983 graduate of Merkez Endüstri Meslek Lisesi Teknik Lise Bilgisayar Bölümü for high school in Adana, Turkey who went on to study statistics for both his bachelor's and master's at Middle East Techincal University in Ankara, Turkey. He also received a master’s degree in mathematics and a doctorate in economics from Syracuse University, as he told Reading Eagle in 2018.
"Our thoughts are with his family, friends and closest colleagues at this difficult time," administrators added.
His friends have been sharing about their loss on social media.
Funeral details have not been released. His family can contact Daily Voice to share that information by emailing jpikora@dailyvoice.com.
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