Fri, Jul 18 2008
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Published May 01, 2008 10:54 pm - ST. LOUIS — Friends, relatives and colleagues of the late Steve Fossett gathered Thursday at Washington University to pay homage to the alumnus and self-made businessman and adventurer. Missouri: Fossett remembered by Washington University The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS — Friends, relatives and colleagues of the late Steve Fossett gathered Thursday at Washington University to pay homage to the alumnus and self-made businessman and adventurer. Fossett, a longtime Washington University trustee and booster, was declared legally dead in February after disappearing during a solo airplane flight. He was 63. An accomplished adventurer, Fossett held world records in five categories — balloons, airships, sailboats, gliders and jet airplanes. But he was perhaps best known as the first person to fly around the world alone, nonstop, in a balloon. He succeeded in his sixth attempt, in 2002. When he asked Washington University academics, staff and students to serve as mission control for his balloon attempts, the university’s reputation soared with him, vice chancellor of public affairs Fredric Volkmann said. They did everything from plotting Fossett’s travels to communicating in French with search vehicles when he plummeted into the Coral Sea off Australia during one unsuccessful flight. Students and media relations staff also handled an onslaught of media inquiries related to his adventures. “He let students play a meaningful role in his quest,” Volkmann said. “For a brief and glorious time, we were partners, together basking in the glow of Steve’s extraordinary accomplishment.” Washington University also was the recipient of his endowed professorships, undergraduate fellowships and a 3-D celestial imaging lab. Fossett was a 1968 MBA graduate of the university’s Olin Business School and a member of Washington University’s Board of Trustees since 1995. Fossett, a native of Jackson, Tenn., exhibited an early interest in adventure. At age 4, he slid down the family home’s chimney “to see what it was like to be Santa Claus,” recalled niece Geneva Fossett Sorum, citing a written family history. While a Stanford University undergraduate, on a dare from his fraternity brothers he swam to Alcatraz to raise a banner that read “Beat Cal” on the wall of the former prison. He successfully swam back and joined his friends for dinner at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. It foreshadowed his 1985 swim across the English Channel. John Wallace Jr., who served with Fossett as trustee, said his friend was “cool as a cucumber” and ever-resourceful, even when his exploits got tricky. Midway through an Iditarod race, the lead dog on a sled team Fossett had rented refused to budge after a break, and the others followed suit. Fossett got down on the ground, dog-level, looked the beast in the eye and bit his ear hard enough that the dog yelped. The dog got the message and Fossett and his dog team went on to complete the race, Wallace recalled. Robert Virgil, former dean of the Olin School of Business, said Fossett tried his hand at many things to make money, from driving cabs to launching a successful series of securities trading businesses in Chicago. The late 1980s’ market crashes were hard on him, and he eventually gave up those enterprises to focus on his real life passions. “He was smart, mentally tough, had wide interests and a passion for life,” Virgil said. “And he did it all in an unassuming way. ... I’ll never forget him.” 
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