Another Explorers Club Member and legend, Neil Armstrong MED’76, has moved on to ultimate exploration stardom, passing away Saturday, Aug. 25th, from complications of heart surgery. Armstrong, 82, was the modern embodiment – the actual realization, if you will – of the hoary myths, millennia-old, of the “Man on the Moon.”
Fellow Explorer James M. Clash FR’99, a long-time friend of Armstrong’s, wrote a memorial piece for Bloomberg BusinessWeek Sunday. It can be found here
As first to walk on the lunar surface, he joined his fellow Club Members to realize the biggest dreams of our species–Sir Edmund Hillary (first to climb the world’s highest mountain, Everest); Robert Peary (first to reach the North Pole); Roald Amundsen (first to reach the South Pole); Don Walsh (first to dive to the deepest point in the oceans); and John Glenn (first American to orbit the earth).
Armstrong, an Explorers Club member since 1976, also received our highest award, The Explorers Medal, for reaching the farthest point man has ever explored. Along with fellow EC Member astronauts Buzz Aldrin MED’76 and Michael Collins MED’76, he was awarded an Explorers Club Flag to carry aboard the Apollo 11 capsule. That flag, which flew to the moon, has since been retired permanently and can be viewed at our historic Lowell Thomas Clubhouse in New York.
Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” is an apex in the history of world exploration. His memory will be treasured by all Members of his beloved Explorers Club, which he last visited just this past spring for a Lindbergh Foundation event.
R.I.P. Mr. Armstrong. The world is a lesser place without you.
