Last week, the rich and powerful members of San Francisco's fabled Bohemian Club flocked to the woods above the Russian River to act like frat boys for a couple of weeks. Although reporters and the public aren't allowed inside the Bohemian Grove campgrounds, we're confident that members of this exclusive boys' club (which has included several former presidents) are carrying out its hallowed traditions of boozing round the clock, pissing wherever they please, and telling pussy jokes.
Sadly, one Bohemian won't be joining the festivities. Edwin M. Wilson Jr., a 91-year-old retired Navy admiral, is staying home instead of partying with the likes of Jimmy Buffett because of a debilitating injury he suffered at the 2007 retreat.
A dive-bomber pilot in the South Pacific in WWII who went on to become a rear admiral while in the reserves, Wilson joined the club in the '60s and had been a regular at the San Francisco clubhouse functions and the annual gatherings at the grove, which "he misses something fierce," says his attorney, Mike Cohen.
Two years ago, Wilson was riding in one of the customized slow-moving, open-top buses that have transported members through the hilly grove for decades. Cohen says they have bench seats along each side and no seat belts. The driver hit a tree stump and then the brakes; Wilson was thrown to the floor and shattered his femur.
Wilson went from being a robust octogenarian who walked up four stories to his North Beach condo and told war yarns onboard Pacific cruise lines to being "completely dependent," Cohen says. Wilson can do little physically these days other than struggle with a walker, sit in a wheelchair, or lie in bed at his San Francisco nursing home, according to his attorneys. Wilson had doubts about suing the club he loves, but did just that in order to cover the medical costs for the rest of his life (Wilson's mother lived to be 100, Cohen says).
"This accident was completely atypical," Bohemian Club spokesman Charlie Goodyear says. "An unfortunate occurrence, but fortunately it's not something that has happened before."
A San Francisco Superior Court judge awarded Wilson more than $1 million plus interest earlier this month after the two sides agreed to settle. "I think the club and the plaintiff feel this was appropriate and can put this behind them," Goodyear says.
