Q: Why do you think we're so drawn to him?
JL: Well, I think quite a lot goes back to the flight which attracted a great
deal of interest in a time in history where one individual became a public
figure. His determination in areas that he put his effort into made an effect,
to this day. He went into conservation and tried to avoid the elimination of
some species of whales. When he went into some places where there were
primitive people, he tried to learn what was going on, tried to keep it from
disappearing in the turnover of our new society. And every time he did
something like this, he put a lot of effort into it, a lot of determination and
people remember that. He was also quite good at it and he was effective.
Q: Do you think he was a hero?
JL: Oh, that depends how you define the word hero. In the public sense, I
think yes. In what he was able to accomplish in his conservation work, I think
it's very important. I suppose somebody who's able to do something important
and advantageous, I think you'd call somebody like that a hero. I think he
would probably want to be remembered for his conservation work compared to his
technical work. No, he didn't deprecate really what some of his technical
accomplishments were. I think he felt more appreciative of, you know, what he
was able to do in a conservation sense.
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