Norman Leonard Baker (November 18, 1928 – November 22, 2017) was a navigator on

Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000& ...

's ''Ra'', ''Ra II'' and ''Tigris''

reed boat Reed boats and rafts, along with dugout canoes and other rafts, are among the oldest known types of boats. Often used as traditional fishing boats, they are still used in a few places around the world, though they have generally been replaced with ...

expeditions. He was the co-author (with Barbara Murphy) of ''Thor Heyerdahl and the Reed Boat Ra'', a 1974 children's book on the expeditions. He was a fellow and director of the

Explorers Club The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904, and has served as a meeting point fo ...

, and served as an advisor to Fara Heim, an expedition searching for signs of

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

settlements in North America. Capt. Baker died when the Cessna 172 he was piloting crashed in

Pittsford, Vermont Pittsford is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 2,862. Named for William Pitt, it has two picket forts used in the American Revolutionary War. History Pittsford was first settled as a ...

on November 22, 2017.

References

1928 births 2017 deaths American explorers American sailors Cornell University alumni American navigators Fellows of the Explorers Club {{US-explorer-stub

See also

References