Paul Allman Siple

Paul Allman Siple was born here on December 18, 1908. In 1927, he was chosen from thousands of ambitious Eagle Scouts to accompany Admiral Richard E. Byrd on his first Antarctic Expedition. Twelve years later, while attending Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, he earned a PH.D. in geography, writing Adaptions of the Explorer to the Climate of Antarctica as his doctoral dissertation. In it, he coined the term ‘windchill’ to denote the rapid heat loss experienced by a body under strong winds. , During his career, Siple spent four summers and ten winters int he Antarctic becoming widely known as a biologist, author, inventor, and seismographic expert. From 1957–1958, he and a crew of eighteen spent eight months at Pole Station, becoming the first men to winter at the South Pole. He is remembered as an American Antarctic exploration pioneer. From 1963 to 1966, he served as the U.S. Scientific Attache to Australia and New Zealand and continued his work with the U.S. Army until his death in 1968.