Graham Westbrook Rowley was an Arctic explorer, hailed as "one of the last true explorers of North America".
Early life and Family
Rowley was born on October 31, 1912 in Manchester, England. As the youngest of four, Rowley always had a playful, ambitious edge; which only helped his future highly demanding career. He met his wife Diana at the Royal Geographical Society in Cambridge, where she was a student editor, and after many failed accounts on asking her to go out on a date with him, she finally gave in and they were inseparable from that day forth. They married twice, once in 1944 and again in 1945 in a Church setting. Together they had three healthy daughters: Anne, Sue and Jane. Rowley and Diana were married for 69 years, and shared their passions for the Arctic together.
He attended Clare College, Cambridge, and received his B.A. from the University of Cambridge in 1934 and his M.A. from the same institution in 1936. From 1936 to 1939, Rowley engaged in an archaeological excavation in the Eastern Canadian Arctic. During this time, he discovered new islands in Fox Basin, carried out the original exploration of the Baffin Island coast, crossed Baffin Island by a new route, and excavated the first major site in Dorset culture. Because of his work with the Inuit and Dorset peoples, Rowley had a large island and river in the Arctic named after him. A Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Rowley was awarded the Society's prestigious Massey Medal in 1963 for his geographical work. As a scientist with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in the early 1970s, he created a training program for Northern scientists and developed ground and air support services for scientific groups working in the Arctic. He was made an honorary member of the American Polar Society in 1985, due to his countless advancements and discoveries in the field. He died in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on December 31, 2003, surrounded by his wife, daughters and grandchildren.
