Richard E. Byrd the rank of captain. After a further summer of exploration, the expedition returned to North America on June 18, 1930. A 19-year-old American Boy Scout, Paul Allman Siple, was chosen to accompany the expedition. Unlike the 1926 flight, this expedition was honored with the gold medal of the American Geographical Society. This was also seen in the film "With Byrd at the South Pole" (1930) which covered his trip there. Byrd, by then an internationally recognized, pioneering American polar explorer and aviator, served for a time as Honorary National President (1931–1935) of Pi Gamma Mu, the international honor society in
Richard C. Byrd in 1844. When Governor Thomas Stevenson Drew resigned from office on January 10, 1849, Byrd was president of the Senate and became acting governor. Byrd left the office on April 19, 1849, and returned to his mercantile store in Jefferson County, Arkansas. Byrd died at his home in Jefferson County following a lengthy illness. Richard C. Byrd Richard C. Byrd (1805 – June 1, 1854) was an American politician and Acting Governor of the State of Arkansas in 1849. Byrd was born in 1805 in Hawkins County, Tennessee. Byrd was a merchant and farmer, and moved to Arkansas in 1826.