SEATTLE (AP) — Jim Whittaker, who in 1963 became the first American to reach the top of Mount Everest, has died. He was 97.
Whittaker’s 1963 ascent to the summit of Mount Everest came 10 years after Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay first scaled the peak.
Whittaker died Tuesday at his home in Port Townsend, Washington. according to a statement from his family.
His Mount Everest feat made the once-shy, rangy climber an instant celebrity, in demand for public appearances and expected to lend his support to good causes.
And it gained him entree into the world of celebrities, including the inner circles of the Kennedy clan. He became a close friend of Robert Kennedy, with whom he climbed a 14,000-foot (4,267 meters) Canadian peak named Mount Kennedy after the 1968 presidential contender’s assassination.
