New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist Edmund Hillary died on this day, January 11, in 2008. Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
From 1985 to 1988 he served as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India and Bangladesh and concurrently as Ambassador to Nepal.
His Sitter record says “Photographed in Chicago at studio of Hedrich Blessing” – Hedrich Blessing Photographers (also Hedrich-Blessing) was an architectural photography firm established in Chicago in 1929.