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The Ronne Family
Please use the Links above to learn more about each member.
My Ronne family's Antarctic background is as
follows:
My grandfather, Martin Ronne, was a
Norwegian sailmaker and was on Arctic expeditions with Norwegian polar
explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. He was on Amundsen's
expedition to the Antarctic when he became the first to discover the South
Pole in 1911. At the age of 67, my grandfather came out of retirement and
went on the first US Byrd (Admiral Richard E. Byrd) Antarctic expedition
(1928-9), as the only member of that expedition to have been there before,
including Byrd. My father, Captain Finn Ronne, who became an American
citizen in 1928, replaced him on the Second Byrd Expedition (1933-5), and
later, as second in command, built a base in the peninsula area on
Stonington Island for the U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition in 1940-2.
My father achieved his dream of having
his own private expedition in 1946-8, the Ronne Antarctic Research
Expedition, (one of only three private American expeditions, ever; the
other two were financed by their wealthy leaders while my father, an
immigrant, begged for donations from the government and geographical and
scientific institutions). They reoccupied the buildings at Stonington
Island. My mother, Edith "Jackie" Ronne, 20 years younger than my father,
at the last minute, accidentally went along on the 15 month expedition,
becoming the first American woman to set foot in Antarctica and the first
woman, period, to over-winter there as an expedition member. She kept all
the records and wrote newspaper releases. They mapped the last unknown
coastline in the world along the Weddell Sea and discovered, named, and
claimed for the US many new geographical features. My father named a huge
area of land he discovered and mapped after my mother, the Edith Ronne
Land, located at the base of the peninsula. This is a rare honor for a
woman of non-royal birth. In later years, the name was moved slightly and
changed to the Ronne Ice Shelf. You can see it on most maps of the
Antarctic.
My father became a commissioned
officer in the U.S. Navy and rose to Captain. He was involved in Arctic
and Antarctic affairs his whole career, including selecting the site for
Thule Air Force Base in Greenland and as military and scientific chief at
Ellsworth Station, Antarctica, during the International Geophysical Year,
1956-6. In the sixties, my father led the very first tourist cruise to
the Antarctic. Mom and Dad became the first couple (Mom, the 7th woman;
the first 6 were news reporters) to stand at the South Pole in 1971. My
father died in 1980 at the age of 80. My mother is still very active,
living here in Bethesda. She is a celebrity lecturer on cruises to the
Antarctic. Why aren't they world famous? Well, in Antarctic circles,
they are, but they shunned publicity.
 Earlier as a child, I accompanied them,
with my cousin Jahn,
to Spitzbergen (Svalbard)
in the high Arctic back in
1962, when it was very barren. We visited Longyearbyen, Ny Alesund (old
stomping ground of Martin Ronne's), etc. We also received special
permission to visit Barentsberg (during the Cold War), where we received a
warm welcome, and very fancy reception and banquet (with toasts to both
countries and to the space-race).
I have made 6 trips to the Antarctic,
in 1995, when we visited the old base at Stonington Island, and '96, '97,
February 2000 and Jan/Feb 2002. My children, Michael (born November
10, 1983) and Jaclyn (born April 2, 1986), were the first - 4th generation
in any family to go to the Antarctic when they went in December
1996-January 1997.
 My
father wrote 4 books and my mother has completed her story, recently
published, "Antarctica's First Lady."
My mother was 31
and my father was 51 when I was born, which explains the "stretched"
generation that I represent. My next youngest cousin (of whom I am aware)
is Jahn Rønne, three years older, and he lives in Oslo, Norway. I live in Bethesda, Maryland.
Ronne Family Geneology Discussion Board
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