One of the individuals most responsible for making millions of people more aware of geography was a prize-winning photographer.

Thomas Abercrombie began his professional career with the Fargo Forum. Later, he frequently risked his safety and life as he photographed and gathered information for 43 National Geographic articles.

Abercrombie was the first person to win both the Newspaper Photographer of the Year and the Magazine Photographer of the Year awards. The Abercrombie Crests in Antarctica are named in his honor.

Thomas James Abercrombie was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Stillwater, Minn., to J.A.D. and Beth Abercrombie. His father was an engineer and he inherited many of the same traits. He could build or improve on anything that piqued his interest.

When he was 15, he went with his brother, Bruce, to Stillwater's Lumberjack Days parade. His brother began snapping pictures of floats with his Italian-made camera. Intrigued with the device, Abercrombie made a drawing of it, and later built a camera with mirrors, a lens and scraps of plastic.

After graduating from high school, Abercrombie enrolled at Macalester College in St. Paul, majoring in art and journalism. After college, he married his school sweetheart, Lynn Bruette, and applied for a position as staff photographer at the Fargo Forum. Abercrombie was hired by John Paulson, managing editor of the paper.

The chief photographer at the time was Cal Olson. In an interview, Olson told numerous stories, about Abercrombie's sense of humor.

In 1953, Wisconsin's Milwaukee Journal was known for having one of the best photography divisions in the country. Abercrombie believed his career could best be served working for that paper.

With a cut in pay, he took a job with the Journal as a summer intern. The next year, he not only was on staff full time but also was awarded the Newspaper Photographer of the Year. After three years with the Journal, Abercrombie was offered a position with the National Geographic magazine in 1956.

Abercrombie's initial overseas assignment was to Lebanon. While there, he won a lottery to become the first journalist to go to the South Pole. His planned trip was to be only one hour, however, the plane developed problems at the pole and Abercrombie remained there for three weeks until the temperature warmed up enough for the plane to take off.

His memorable pictures appeared in the April 1958 issue of National Geographic. In 1959, Abercrombie was awarded the Magazine Photographer of the Year.

Driven to immerse himself in every culture, Abercrombie read whatever he could and became fluent in French, German, Spanish and Arabic, and passable in Italian.

One of the books he read was the Quran. Abercrombie converted to Islam, made four pilgrimages to Mecca and adopted an Arabic name, Omar. This led to opportunities not open to other Americans.

Abercrombie became the first Westerner to photograph sacred Muslim sites, and he also became friends with members of the royal Saudi family. He became the leading expert for National Geographic of the Arab world.

Besides being considered one of America's premier photographers, Abercrombie was also a gifted writer, receiving the award for best overseas reporting in 1974. In many ways, he became a modern day Ernest Hemingway, both in appearance and in his thirst for adventure.

Abercrombie went to countries involved in civil wars, crossed the desert on camel caravans, went diving with Jacques Cousteau, flew airplanes to remote areas and learned to cuss with the best of them.

In 1993, Abercrombie retired from National Geographic to become a geography instructor at George Washington University. In his spare time, he built fishing and sailing vessels by hand.

In 2004, National Geographic documented Abercrombie's career in the film, "White Tiger: The Adventures of Thomas J. Abercrombie."

Two years later, Abercrombie suffered from heart problems and went to Johns Hopkins Hospital for open-heart surgery, but died of complications on April 6, 2006.

(Written by Curt Eriksmoen and edited by Jan Eriksmoen. Reach the Eriksmoens by e-mail at cjeriksmoen@cableone.net.)