Finn Ronne
The
Norwegian-American Finn Ronne (in Norwegian:
Finn Rønne) (
20 December 1899,
Horten,
Norway –
12 January 1980,
Bethesda, Maryland) was a
U.S. Antarctic explorer. His father,
Martin Rønne, was a polar explorer and served in
Roald Amundsen's successful expedition to the
South Pole. Ronne got his education in engineering at
Horten College.
In
1923 Finn Ronne immigrated to the U.S. and gained citizenship in
1929. After working at
Westinghouse Electric Corporation for some years, he took part in two of
Richard E. Byrd's expeditions to the South Pole, and in
1939 Ronne served as Byrd's executive officer helping discover one thousand miles of new coastline.
After serving several years in the
United States Navy, gaining the rank of Captain, Ronne
returned to Antarctica in the
1940s, with support of the
American Geographical Society. The expedition from
1946 to
1948 mapped and explored the
Weddell Sea coastline and set a number of polar records. Ronne covered 3,600 miles by ski and
dog sled—more than any other explorer in history. His wife
Edith Ronne accompanied him on this expedition, serving, in her own words, as ‘historian and correspondent for the North American Newspaper Alliance'. She and the chief pilot's wife
Jennie Darlington were the first women to overwinter in Antarctica.
In the
1950s, the Navy organized
Operation Deepfreeze to complete the mapping of Antarctica and establish centers for scientific research. Ronne became the scientific and military leader for a U.S. Weddell Sea base. During his lifetime he wrote several books on Antarctica and many scientific papers on Antarctic research. He received three
medals and numerous military awards for service, for geographical exploration and for the advancement of science.
At his death in 1980, in
Bethesda, Maryland, Ronne was buried at
Arlington National Cemetery.
This text is based on the public domain biography of the Naval Historical Center.*
Concise biography of Finn Ronne, at the Arlington National Cemetery Website(including a photo of the reverse of Ronne's tombstone, which lists the expeditions he took part in as well as his medals)
