Martin Lenick
02-20-2008, 10:35 PM
From the Chicago Sun Times:
The adventurer
From driving a Yellow Cab, to becoming an options trader, to flying around the world in a balloon, Steve Fossett went wherever life took him
February 18, 2008
BY FRANK MAIN AND DAVID ROEDER Staff Reporters
He climbed a mountain when he was 12.
Once, for a college prank, he swam across the treacherous currents of San Francisco Bay to Alcatraz Island.
And, on one of his first dates with future wife Peggy, he took her up in a Cessna 172 and competed in an air show.
Steve Fossett, who made his fortune trading commodities in Chicago, spent most of his 63 years seeking adventures that tested his limits -- triumphing in 2002 as the first balloonist to circle the world solo.
But he was unable to cheat death when his plane apparently crashed into the Nevada desert Sept. 3. He was scouting locations for one of his latest pursuits: Setting the land-speed record in a rocket-propelled car.
His body was never found and he was officially presumed dead Friday by a Cook County judge.
Mr. Fossett was last seen flying a single-engine Bellanca from hotelier Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch. Mr. Fossett took off from an airstrip at the ranch at 8:45 a.m. and has been missing ever since. Turbulent winds might have been a factor in the crash, experts said.
"He was honest, straightforward and always prepared," said Patrick Arbor, the former chairman of the Chicago Board of Trade who often accompanied Mr. Fossett on adventures. Arbor said they climbed Kilimanjaro together and scuba-dived to an undersea hotel in Key Largo, Fla.
"I used to kid him that traveling with him was like traveling with a Walgreens drugstore for all the supplies he brought along," Arbor said.
He said Mr. Fossett was motivated by a desire for personal achievement -- never by glory or publicity. "He had a very understated way, like the time he just casually mentioned to me that he swam the English Channel," Arbor said.
Mr. Fossett grew up in Southern California, where he climbed Mount San Jacinto at age 12 and became an Eagle Scout at just 13.
"Heading out into the wilderness by myself taught me to become accountable for my own survival and the consequences of my decisions," he wrote in his 2006 autobiography, Chasing the Wind.
Inspired by South Pole explorer Ernest Shackleton and others, Mr. Fossett dedicated his life to adventure.
In college, he almost slipped off the face of the Eiger mountain during a summer of climbing in the Alps. As a young businessman, he flipped his Datsun in a road rally in New York, an experience he called "cathartic."
He swam the English Channel in 1985 after three unsuccessful attempts. He braved the Arctic in the Iditarod dog sled race in 1992. He competed in the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996. And, in 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling.
In all, Mr. Fossett shattered 116 records in five sports -- and 60 of his world marks remain unbroken. The World Sailing Speed Record Council recognizes him as the world's most-accomplished speed sailor, holding seven yachting records.
Mr. Fossett earned his bachelor's degree at Stanford University and an MBA at Washington University in St. Louis. After a few business setbacks, he became a multimillionaire.
Early in his career, Mr. Fossett got laid off from a consulting job in Detroit and moved to Chicago, where he went to work for Marshall Field's. Disillusioned with that job, he quit Marshall Field's and drove a Yellow Cab here to make ends meet.
Mr. Fossett did a little research and learned that some of the most lucrative jobs were in the city's financial markets. Soon, he was trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and, by 1977, at the age of 33, he made his first million. He lost most of that windfall to the volatile stock market of 1979 -- despite pleas from his wife to get out of the risky options business.
Determined to succeed, Mr. Fossett launched his own trading company, Marathon Securities, and by the mid-1980s, more than 50 traders worked for him.
"He was a great bull market trader," Arbor said. "He caught the Reagan bull market over there [at the CBOE] pretty good." At one point, Mr. Fossett owned more than 30 seats on the CBOE, Arbor said.
Mr. Fossett used his personal fortune to bankroll his quests.
"I had turned my life upside down," Mr. Fossett wrote in his book. "I made my business career secondary and made my adventure goals my primary focus. The call of adventure was still luring me, and I realized that life was too short for all that I still wanted to experience outside of the corporate world."
Yet photos of Mr. Fossett over the past decade fail to capture that inner drive. In them, he looks more like a comfortable, balding professor than a steely adventurer.
He and his wife kept a home at Water Tower Place on North Michigan Avenue. But recently they spent most of their time at their home in Beaver Creek, Colo., where they were neighbors with the late President Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty.
Indeed, Mr. Fossett traveled in lofty circles. Among his pals was billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who bankrolled his round-the-world solo balloon trip and admiringly called Mr. Fossett "a tough old boot" and "half-human."
Last year, Mr. Fossett was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
"He says he's not a 'thrill seeker,'" according to the Hall of Fame's biography of him. "You wouldn't catch him bungee jumping. But he has flown solo over India in turbulence so forceful that he expected the plane to break apart.
To him, risk is carefully calculated and managed. He really thrives on surprising people by completing the impossible."
At the podium in July 2007 for his induction into the Hall of Fame, Mr. Fossett joked, "I'm hoping you didn't give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I'm not done."
STEVE FOSSETT | 1944-2008
The adventurer
From driving a Yellow Cab, to becoming an options trader, to flying around the world in a balloon, Steve Fossett went wherever life took him
February 18, 2008
BY FRANK MAIN AND DAVID ROEDER Staff Reporters
He climbed a mountain when he was 12.
Once, for a college prank, he swam across the treacherous currents of San Francisco Bay to Alcatraz Island.
And, on one of his first dates with future wife Peggy, he took her up in a Cessna 172 and competed in an air show.
Steve Fossett, who made his fortune trading commodities in Chicago, spent most of his 63 years seeking adventures that tested his limits -- triumphing in 2002 as the first balloonist to circle the world solo.
But he was unable to cheat death when his plane apparently crashed into the Nevada desert Sept. 3. He was scouting locations for one of his latest pursuits: Setting the land-speed record in a rocket-propelled car.
His body was never found and he was officially presumed dead Friday by a Cook County judge.
Mr. Fossett was last seen flying a single-engine Bellanca from hotelier Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch. Mr. Fossett took off from an airstrip at the ranch at 8:45 a.m. and has been missing ever since. Turbulent winds might have been a factor in the crash, experts said.
"He was honest, straightforward and always prepared," said Patrick Arbor, the former chairman of the Chicago Board of Trade who often accompanied Mr. Fossett on adventures. Arbor said they climbed Kilimanjaro together and scuba-dived to an undersea hotel in Key Largo, Fla.
"I used to kid him that traveling with him was like traveling with a Walgreens drugstore for all the supplies he brought along," Arbor said.
He said Mr. Fossett was motivated by a desire for personal achievement -- never by glory or publicity. "He had a very understated way, like the time he just casually mentioned to me that he swam the English Channel," Arbor said.
Mr. Fossett grew up in Southern California, where he climbed Mount San Jacinto at age 12 and became an Eagle Scout at just 13.
"Heading out into the wilderness by myself taught me to become accountable for my own survival and the consequences of my decisions," he wrote in his 2006 autobiography, Chasing the Wind.
Inspired by South Pole explorer Ernest Shackleton and others, Mr. Fossett dedicated his life to adventure.
In college, he almost slipped off the face of the Eiger mountain during a summer of climbing in the Alps. As a young businessman, he flipped his Datsun in a road rally in New York, an experience he called "cathartic."
He swam the English Channel in 1985 after three unsuccessful attempts. He braved the Arctic in the Iditarod dog sled race in 1992. He competed in the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996. And, in 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling.
In all, Mr. Fossett shattered 116 records in five sports -- and 60 of his world marks remain unbroken. The World Sailing Speed Record Council recognizes him as the world's most-accomplished speed sailor, holding seven yachting records.
Mr. Fossett earned his bachelor's degree at Stanford University and an MBA at Washington University in St. Louis. After a few business setbacks, he became a multimillionaire.
Early in his career, Mr. Fossett got laid off from a consulting job in Detroit and moved to Chicago, where he went to work for Marshall Field's. Disillusioned with that job, he quit Marshall Field's and drove a Yellow Cab here to make ends meet.
Mr. Fossett did a little research and learned that some of the most lucrative jobs were in the city's financial markets. Soon, he was trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and, by 1977, at the age of 33, he made his first million. He lost most of that windfall to the volatile stock market of 1979 -- despite pleas from his wife to get out of the risky options business.
Determined to succeed, Mr. Fossett launched his own trading company, Marathon Securities, and by the mid-1980s, more than 50 traders worked for him.
"He was a great bull market trader," Arbor said. "He caught the Reagan bull market over there [at the CBOE] pretty good." At one point, Mr. Fossett owned more than 30 seats on the CBOE, Arbor said.
Mr. Fossett used his personal fortune to bankroll his quests.
"I had turned my life upside down," Mr. Fossett wrote in his book. "I made my business career secondary and made my adventure goals my primary focus. The call of adventure was still luring me, and I realized that life was too short for all that I still wanted to experience outside of the corporate world."
Yet photos of Mr. Fossett over the past decade fail to capture that inner drive. In them, he looks more like a comfortable, balding professor than a steely adventurer.
He and his wife kept a home at Water Tower Place on North Michigan Avenue. But recently they spent most of their time at their home in Beaver Creek, Colo., where they were neighbors with the late President Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty.
Indeed, Mr. Fossett traveled in lofty circles. Among his pals was billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who bankrolled his round-the-world solo balloon trip and admiringly called Mr. Fossett "a tough old boot" and "half-human."
Last year, Mr. Fossett was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
"He says he's not a 'thrill seeker,'" according to the Hall of Fame's biography of him. "You wouldn't catch him bungee jumping. But he has flown solo over India in turbulence so forceful that he expected the plane to break apart.
To him, risk is carefully calculated and managed. He really thrives on surprising people by completing the impossible."
At the podium in July 2007 for his induction into the Hall of Fame, Mr. Fossett joked, "I'm hoping you didn't give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I'm not done."
STEVE FOSSETT | 1944-2008