Fritiof Fryxell

Fritiof M. Fryxell was an American educator, geologist and mountain climber, best known for his research and writing on the Teton Range of Wyoming. Born in Moline, Illinois, in 1900 to immigrant parents from Sweden, he studied biology and English at Augustana College, took a master's degree in English at the University of Illinois and a doctorate in geology at the University of Chicago, where his dissertation on mountain glaciation drew him to the Tetons. He joined the Augustana faculty in 1924 and in 1929 became the first chair of its new geology department. When Grand Teton National Park was established in 1929 he became its first naturalist, a post he held for six summers, founding the park museum, building an interpretive programme and making first ascents of many Teton peaks. He also published biographies of artists and explorers of the American West. He died in 1986.