Sir Edmund Hillary

I was writing to a correspondent from North Carolina yesterday and mentioned the following about Sir Edmund Hillary's death: "We are mourning the loss of Sir Edmund Hillary over here – he died last Friday… he kind of epitomizes what kind of people we like to think we [NZers] are… he was humble and generous to the poor… not a bad role model really!
The Maori people of New Zealand talk of the death of a significant person as being like a mighty Totara tree falling… it makes a big noise and leaves a huge gap in the landscape. That’s how it feels here."


One of the early images of Sir Edmund epitomises the man... while he is credited with being the first to summit Mt Everest, he actually was there because of a partnership with the local Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay... that partnership proved in time to be more than a means to an end to get up the mountain, it became a partnership with a people. Sir Ed used the prestige bestowed on him to serve the impoverished Nepalese people. That's the kind of person I admire. I have less and less time for people who use their fame to satiate their egos. Sir Ed's humility was one of his most endearing qualities.
Here are few quotes of his that illustrate that humility:
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
"People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things."
"You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated."

Perhaps the best one is his thought that it wasn't so much that he conquered the mountain but that the mountain relented to let them up.