A truely great man :(

[cirianz]

Sir Edmund Hillary,

Written off as a child for being too skinny & uncoordinated
He & Sherpa Tensing were the first to climb Everest.
But he was never one to stop & soon was driving across the antarctic on a tractor,
& later to be instrumental in the creation of the Scott Base.
He built over 30 schools for the sherpa towns in Nepal
Hospitals, now staffed largely by Doctors & nurses who were once children in the schools he created.
And 2 airstrips.

He was also one of the people I personally respected,
A true-blue Kiwi
he was always an honourable man
and a humble one,
never seeing himself as different from anyone else
but with a dry, straight faced humor that led him to respond once,
when yet another interviewer äsked how he could be so modest
"Well, I've got a lot to be modest about."

Of all the great achievements in his life, and there were a staggering amount, as one of his family said, 'he never saw life and adventure as seperate things'.
The one he most wanted to be remembered for was the creation of the Himalayan trust which built, & continues to build the schools & hospitals that have changed so many lives.

He lay in state for the last night until 8am this morning
& despite the battering of the tail end of the fijian cyclone, people of all races, ages and status's queud for over 4 hours in the pouring rain in order to be able to pay their last respects.
Continuously throughout the night the flow of people never stopped.

I don't think there has ever been another New Zealander who aroused the same degree of admiration, respect & love.
And I personally am sad that he is dead.
He leaves a hole that no one will ever be able to fill.
Farewell Sir Ed


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7182376.stm

 

[TriplexDread]

I wish I had even the slightest dedication he has had in the past

He was a great man and will be remembered for everything he has done

I wish i someday manage to achieve even one thing he has managed to to do

 

[cirianz]

Thank you
Even last year at 87 he was up traipsing around the Foothills of Nepal working with the trust that he built, I'd love to be half so active & alive at that age
In 2003 the was made an honourary citizen of Nepal.
The name the Nepalese had for him translated as 'man with a big heart'
They called him "our father and our mother"

 

[Ian]

He's one of those amazing people that you don't get many of - we need a few people like that, amazing explorers that are willing to push the bounds of what we know

 

[floppybootstomp]

A great man indeed, I knew about Everest but didn't realise he'd done all those other things.

RIP Sir Ed.

 

[nivrip]

A great man who achieved great things, the climbing of Everest being only one of them.

RIP

 

[crazylegs]

Unbelievable achievements from a down to earth normal guy who never gave up and lived life to the full everyday right into old age...

R.I.P Sir Edmund Hilary....You will not be forgotten.

 

[Taffycat]

A great man indeed, very much loved and respected by so many people whom he helped so tirelessly throughout his life. A wonderful man. RIP

 

[Abarbarian]

Everest was only the begining . His work in Nepal was his greatest triumph . A real man . He has always been one of my heroes . May he rest in peace .

 

[cirianz]

Indeed, at his funeral his kids talked about how they would look forward to school holidays with a mixture of dread and excitement, never knowing just what adventure Dad had planned for them this time.

His son said about how his Dad was probably the only person he ever knew who, whenever he popped off for an overseas trip would have a prefabricated building in his luggage... always. That being how the Nepalese base for the Himalayan trust was built. One building at a time

Sir Ed & his family would periodically live over in Nepal for various lengths of time, and it was during one of these times that his first wife and one of his daughters were killed in a plane crash while flying back to the construction site where they were living at the time His son spoke about how, when he & his sister & their father stood, in the backstreets of Kathmandu their arms around each other, crying their eyes out, that he first realised that his father, the unshakeable oak that he had always appeared, was so fragile as well.

And there was the time when a large cereal company 'waved a big cheque at him & asked him to endorse their cereal.' His response? "But I don't like that cereal." "That doesn't matter, no one will know." "It matters to me!" he replied indignantly. Turning down the cheque rather than compromise his own personal sense of honour.

And, on the 50th anniversary of the Everest climb, he turned down an invitation from the queen to come celebrate, so that he could go celebrate the anniversary with his friends in Nepal instead.

I have to confess to never having read any of his books, although I have heard that they are quite unputdownable. I suspect that there is likely to be a surge of reprints in the near future so maybe I'll do some exploring myself. I think 'Nothing venture Nothing win" is the most well known (I actually had no idea that he had written any other books at all until now) so maybe I'll try it out. Although, how he managed to find the time to write even one book in such a busy life I have no idea. With so many things said 'about' him I expect it will be interesting to find out his own personal take on things.