Attorney, adventurer and one-time U.S. Senate candidate Eric Treisman died Friday, five days after suffering a heart attack. He was 64.

Treisman was born in Yakima, Wash., grew up there and in Northern California, and graduated from Dartmouth University in New Hampshire.

"He was an amazing man and he was an amazing child," said his mother, Doris Treisman of Oakland, Calif. "He was tall and healthy and smart. Everybody liked him."

The heart attack on Sunday left him brain dead. Doris Treisman said her son's life support was removed Friday afternoon.

Eric Treisman went to Stanford Law School in California at the same time as U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. and Bingaman's wife, Anne.

He first came to New Mexico in 1968 to work for the Navajo legal-aid office, then went to Micronesia and Alaska to work for other native legal-aid groups.

After serving as in-house counsel for an Alaskan-native corporation and living briefly in Seattle, he came to Santa Fe to practice law around 1980.

Mike Gross, who shared an office with Treisman on St. Michael's Drive, said he first worked with Treisman on a complex case involving a brokerage house.

"It turned out badly, but it was an exciting case," Gross said. "We still joked every once in a while with each other about our phantom fee split."

Gross said Treisman had an "eclectic" practice. Most recently, he had represented some Indian artisans who challenged the regulations for selling on the portal of the Palace of the Governors.

In 1996, he ran for the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, losing to Bernalillo County Democratic Chairman Art Trujillo, a former Santa Fe mayor, who went on to lose to Republican incumbent Pete Domenici.

In addition to his legal practice, Treisman was a mountain climber, adventurer and writer whose articles have been published by Harper's, Rolling Stone and the Wall Street Journal.

"He was part of an expedition for the National Geographic, flying biplanes along the entire length of the northern coastline of Russia," Gross said. "He climbed the highest mountain in the Caucasus and wrote about it for the Wall Street Journal."

Two years ago, Treisman took a 10-day hike with his son Zack into the northern reaches of India where they became ill from oxygen deprivation at around 18,000 feet in altitude.

Treisman was an ardent supporter of Tibetan independence, helping hundreds of Tibetan refugees obtain visas for the United States and organizing a meeting between the Dalai Lama and then-President George H.W. Bush.

A Santa Fe judge granted a petition for divorce between Treisman and his wife, Kimberly Treisman, on Monday.

His father, Eli Treisman, preceded him in death. In addition to his mother, survivors include three sons, Zack, 33, of Vancouver, Alex, 8, and Aaron, 4, of Santa Fe; sisters Ruth and Naomi Treisman of Oakland, and cousins Diane Henderson of Los Angeles and Geoffrey Henderson of Denver.

A celebration of Treisman's life will be held at 2 p.m. today east of Pecos. The homeowner, Fran Paul, a friend of Treisman, asks that anyone who wishes to attend call her upon reaching the village of Pecos at 757-6049 for exact directions.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.