Mt. Everest's conqueror dies
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to stand atop the world's highest mountain, was remembered today as a deeply driven but unassuming man who strived to help the people of Nepal in the decades after his ascent of Mount Everest.
Hillary, who died today of a heart attack at 88, will have a state funeral in New Zealand, where he began the mountaineering career that took him and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay to the tallest point on earth, a spokesman for his family said.
He is survived by his children Peter and Sarah and wife June, who said today that her family was comforted by the messages of support from around the world.
She said Hillary had been hospitalized on Monday and died peacefully.
"He remained in good spirits until the end," she said.
Hillary's life was marked by grand achievements, high adventure, discovery, excitement — but he was especially proud of his decades-long campaign to set up schools and health clinics in Nepal, the homeland of Tenzing Norgay, the mountain guide with whom he stood arm in arm on the 29,035-foot summit of Everest on May 29, 1953.
Yet he was humble to the point that he only acknowledged being the first man atop Everest long after the death of Tenzing.
He wrote of the pair's final steps to the top of the world: "Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest.
"Awe, wonder, humility, pride, exaltation — these surely ought to be the confused emotions of the first men to stand on the highest peak on Earth, after so many others had failed," Hillary noted.
"I removed my oxygen mask to take some pictures. It wasn't enough just to get to the top. We had to get back with the evidence. Fifteen minutes later we began the descent."
Then, upon arriving back at base camp, he took an irreverent view: "We knocked the bastard off."
But New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, announcing his death, took a grander view of his achievements.
"Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality, he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only 'knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity. ... The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived."
