Foundation Directors

The Christopher Johnson McCandless Memorial Foundation, Inc

Christopher’s parents, Billie and Walt McCandless serve as the voluntary Directors of the Foundation. Billie and Walt reside in Virginia Beach, Virginia from May through October and in Tucson, Arizona the rest of the year. Because of their ‘hands-on” approach to selecting and monitoring recipients, several of the Charities are based in these locations. After carefully selecting a charity, the foundation usually provides support for three to five consecutive years.

Gloria Davis, with added support from her husband Jim, plays a similar role from her base in Virginia Beach, Virginia and also extends the Foundations’ reach to global ministries and missions. Gloria and Billie work together to find and support Christian outreach in many foreign countries and recently journeyed to Nicaragua in 2008 to help establish residences and corollary schools and other facilities for young girls.

One of the Directors, Mary Gram writes - After Walt and Billie learned of Chris’ death, Walt and Billie established a foundation in his memory which helps fund underprivillaged children. When I heard about it I wanted to be a part of it and offered my services. Walt gave me an opportunity to work with the team on the book, Back to the Wild.

Working together, this team aims to research, designate and monitor the charitable giving of Foundation funds, providing the business base and accountability required to keep the fund viable and moving forward

At the present time, the charities that we have a continuing relationship with are:

Billie and Gloria thanking donors with ”Blessing Bread.”
Mary giving cheque to Park Place.
Walt and Billie holding two of Heather’s paintings created from the photographs Chris took during his journey.