Scouting, Volume 46, Number 7, September 1958 Page: 2
32 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Richard L. Chappell, outstanding Explorer — with
a capital "E" — in the United States, proved to be
the same sort of explorer — with a small "e" — in
the Antarctic. Dick represented the Boy Scouts of Am-
erica as the youngest member of the National Academy
of Sciences team working on the International Geo-
physical Year Program. On the polar continent from
January, 1957, to February, 1958, he was one of more
than a hundred Americans and others from a dozen
countries which had Antarctic stations.
During his fourteen months at Little America, Dick
was a junior scientific aide. Because of his experience
he has decided to major in physics instead of engineer-
ing when he enters Princeton University this month on a
Naval Reserve Officer's Training Corps scholarship.
Since his ten thousand mile return trip from the bot-
tom of the world in February, he has traveled almost
that far in the United States as an envoy for Exploring.
In Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle, and sixteen
other cities in between he has spoken to thousands of
people at high schools and Scouting gatherings and to
millions more on radio and television.
Aide's Duties Varied
Dick has talked and shown colored slides of the wide
variety of his activities. These included more than his
assigned duties because he volunteered for more than
was expected of him. Before embarking for Antarctica
he was trained for three months in Washington as a
scientific aide.
Here are the high lights of the work, assigned and
otherwise, with which Dick assisted at Little America:
Banding skau gulls for migration studies.
Cooking at Camp Michigan away from the base camp.
Plotting maps for Weather Central with data collected
from land and sea stations all over the polar zone.
Playing the organ at chapel.
Measuring temperatures from the surface to a depth
of twenty-five feet in the Ross Ice Shelf.
Photographing pictures and spectrograms of the
Southern Lights from a plastic dome atop a tower
during the long polar night.
Branding seals for migration studies — a project sug-
gested by Dick and involving rounding up a herd by
Navy helicopter and putting the Circle LA (Little Am-
erica) brand on them.
Hiking with pack in temperatures down — not up —
in the 60's with thermistors fastened to his body to
provide data on thermal balance and to test polar
clothing.
Feeding canned shrimp to a captured Antarctic petrel,
the first time this species was ever fed in captivity.
Learning to operate a short-wave radio and talking
on it to the folks at home in Eggertsville, New York.
How ireff did our Explorer
representative, chosen
from 250 applicants antl
seven finalists, meet the
tlemands of scientific work
on a polar expedition?
As Others Saw Vliiii
To find out how well Dick did all these things and
more, you have to talk to others who knew him at the
U. S. stations on the polar continent.
The Navy area commander qualified him as "an out-
standing lad and shipmate."
Dr. Paul A. Siple, former Explorer who also was an
explorer and Scouting representative with Admiral
Byrd's first expedition in 1928, helped in the final selec-
tion of eighteen-year-old Dick. Later, their only con-
tact inside the Antarctic circle was by radio, Dick at
Little America, Dr. Siple in charge of the I.G.Y. station
at the south pole. The veteran of six polar trips said of
Dick, "I could tell from the tone of his voice, the
eagerness that was in him, that he was having the same
thrill that I had on my first expedition thirty years
ago."
Another scientist reported to Dr. Siple, "Every time
I would ask where something was or for some help,
they would say, 'Just ask Dick Chappell where it is,' or
'Dick will give you a hand/ " This scientist was working
with a record of the aurora taken during the winter
night. He had written on the paper the name of the
senior scientist who had made the observations and
under it the name of Dick Chappell. Dick came in and
asked, What is my name doing there?" The scientist
answered, "Well you helped with the program didn't
you?" Dick said, "Yes, but it is the other man's pro-
gram— I just helped."
Credit to Seouting
Much more has been and could be written about how
our Explorer was a credit to the Boy Scouts of America
on the I.G.Y. expedition. Dick tells how he relied on his
Scouting background in a distant and totally new en-
vironment.
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 46, Number 7, September 1958, periodical, September 1958; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth329269/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.