Fritiof Fryxell

Fritiof M. Fryxell (April 27, 1900 – December 19, 1986) was an American educator, geologist and mountain climber, best known for his research and writing on the Teton Range of Wyoming. Upon the establishment of Grand Teton National Park in 1929, he was named the park’s first naturalist, a position he held for six summers. He was also an accomplished biographer, publishing works on several artists and explorers of the American West.

Fritiof Fryxell was born in Moline, Illinois to John and Sophie Fryxell, immigrants from Sweden. He attended Augustana College in nearby Rock Island, graduating in 1922 with majors in biology and English. He was a founding father of the Gamma Alpha Beta fraternity at Augustana College. Fryxell earned a Master's degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and then a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Chicago. His dissertation subject, mountain glaciation, took him to the West in 1924, where he fell in love with the Teton Mountains. He joined the faculty of Augustana in the fall of 1924.

Beginning in 1926, Fryxell spent the next nine summers in and around the Teton Range, which at the time was inaccessible by train or automobile. During three summers of field work for his dissertation, Fryxell spent almost all his time in Jackson Hole, the valley in the eastern lee of the Tetons, studying the moraines and glacial outwash from the mountains. He camped out, carrying his tent, rations, and down-filled sleeping bag with him as he traversed the valley floor. After his appointment as park naturalist in 1929, he was finally able to explore the mountains themselves. On his rare days off, he would rise as early as two o'clock in the morning to begin his ascent. Nearly always exploring alone, he climbed previously untraveled canyons, discovered hidden lakes, and summitted many of the range’s peaks for the first time.

...
Wikipedia