Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. (August 13, 1860 – October 23, 1925) was a Virginia politician. He moved to Winchester Virginia from West Virginia in 1887 and became a wealthy apple grower in the Shenandoah Valley and published the Winchester Star newspaper. He represented Winchester in the Virginia House of Delegates, and served as that body's Speaker from 1908 until 1914. He was the United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia from 1914 until 1920. One of his sons, Richard, became famous as a naval aviator who led an expedition to the South Pole; another,
Byrd Cloth Byrd Cloth Byrd Cloth is a type of fabric similar to Grenfell Cloth which was designed in the 1934 by Harris Thurston and heavily promoted by Antarctic explorer Richard Byrd. The material was considered windproof yet the weave allowed some air to penetrate and therefore allowed sweat to evaporate from the body rather than freeze against the skin. It was meant to replace the fur-lined parkas which had traditionally been used for cold-weather exploration, and was discovered to also be ideal for World War II army uniforms because it absorbed less sweat, repelled mosquito bites, and was much lighter weight