South Pole explorer Vaughan dies at 100

[roguevalley]

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7309799p-7221499c.html

and

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051224/people_nm/vaughan_dc

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Norman Vaughan, an adventurer whose eight-decade career spanned the early exploration of Antarctica to dog-mushing feats in his later years in Alaska, died at an Anchorage hospital on Friday, four days after his 100th birthday.

As a young man, Vaughan left Harvard University to work as a dog handler and driver during Admiral Richard Byrd's 1928 expedition to the South Pole. He later raced sled dogs in the 1932
Winter Olympics and used dog teams to recover downed Allied aircraft and crew members in Greenland during World War II.

Vaughan later moved to Alaska, where he competed in the famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race about a dozen times. He finished the 1,100-mile race six times, the last at age 85.

Vaughan also organized an annual tour along part of the Iditarod Trail that commemorates the delivery of diphtheria serum in 1925 to the stricken city of Nome.

At 88, he scaled a 10,302-foot peak on Antarctica that was named for him by Byrd.

Vaughan became an Alaska icon and was often referred to as "Colonel Vaughan" in reference to his U.S. Air Force years.

Vaughan "lived a lifetime of achievements that most people only dream about," said a statement released by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. "Col. Vaughan is truly one of the most inspirational people we'll ever know." Television reports said Vaughan's family plans no memorial service but will scatter the late explorer's ashes along the Iditarod Trail. Vaughan celebrated his 100th birthday with a party at an Anchorage hospital last weekend. According to one television report, the champagne that he sipped was his first taste of an alcoholic beverage.

There aren't words to express how sad this makes me to hear. He was a great, good man.