I had meant to put this posting out after finding out that Sir Edmund Hilary died on January 11th. His passing is really the end of an era of one of the great men of the XXth Century. Most of my compatriots only know of Sir Edmund Hilary as being one of the first two men to scale Mount Everest, along with the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.(Whose picture is on the far right, taken at the summit of Everest by Sir Edmund)
You cannot just pigeon-hole Sir Edmund Hilary as just an mountain-climber. That would be too narrow of a definition. I will post a couple of links to read more about him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/21/edmund.hillary.funeral/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto
The bottom line is that he was a great man who championed human rights, the enviornment, and giving back to the Sherpas-who loved Sir Edmund as one of their own, as much as he loved them. One of my Metropolis Rugby teamates named Mark, a native Kiwi, had the honor of having had Sir Edmund speak at his High School graduation. An unpretentious man, for years, his name and phone number were in the Auckland version of the white pages.
For all of my Kiwi friends on the blogosphere, I offer you my condolences on the passing of this great man. He represented what was good and decent in sportsmen…and the human race.
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