James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – missing September 3, 2007, declared legally dead February 15, 2008[1][2]) was an American aviator, sailor, and adventurer who became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon. He made his fortune in the financial services industry and was best known for many world records, including five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot.

A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club, Fossett set 116 records in five different sports, 60 of which still stand.[3]

Fossett was reported missing after the plane he was flying over the Nevada desert failed to return.[4] Despite a month of searches by the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and others, Fossett could not be found, and the search by CAP was called off on October 2, 2007. However, privately-funded and directed search efforts continued.

On November 2, 2007, Peggy Fossett and Dick Rutan accepted the Spread Wings Award in Steve Fossett's behalf at the 2007 Spreading Wings Gala, Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, Denver, Colorado.[5]

On November 26, 2007, Fossett's wife requested that Fossett be declared legally dead. [6] The petition was granted on February 15, 2008.[1]

Early years

Fossett was born in Jackson, Tennessee. His family later moved to Garden Grove, California.[3]

Fossett's interest in adventure began early. As a Boy Scout, he grew up climbing the mountains of California, beginning with the San Jacinto Mountains.[7] "When I was 12 years old I climbed my first mountain, and I just kept going, taking on more diverse and grander projects."[8] Fossett said that he did not have a natural gift for athletics or team sports, so he focused on activities that required persistence and endurance.[9] His father, an Eagle Scout, encouraged Fossett to pursue these types of adventures and encouraged him to become involved with the Boy Scouts early.[7] At age 13,[7] Fossett also earned the Boy Scouts' highest rank of Eagle Scout.[10] Fossett said in 2006 that Scouting was the most important activity of his youth.[7]

In college at Stanford University, Fossett was already known as an adventurer; his Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brothers convinced him to swim to Alcatraz and raise a banner that read "Beat Cal" on the wall of the prison, closed two years previously.[9] Fossett held various leadership positions at Stanford, including serving in student government and serving as President of a few clubs.[7] In 1966, Fossett graduated from Stanford with a degree in economics.[11] After graduation, Fossett spent the summer in Europe climbing mountains and swimming the Dardanelles.[9]

Business career

In 1968, Fossett received an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where Fossett was a longtime member of the Board of Trustees.[12] Fossett's first job out of business school was with IBM; he then served as a consultant for Deloitte and Touche, and later accepted a job with Marshall Field's. Fossett later said, "For the first five years of my business career, I was distracted by being in computer systems, and then I became interested in financial markets. That's where I thrived."[7]

Fossett then became a successful commodities salesman in Chicago, first for Merrill Lynch in 1973, where he proved a highly successful producer of commission revenue for himself and that firm. He began working in 1976 for Drexel Burnham, which provided him with a membership on the Chicago Board of Trade and permitted him to market the services of the firm from a phone on the floor of that exchange. In 1980, Fossett began the process that eventually produced his enduring prosperity: renting exchange memberships to would-be floor traders, first on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.[9][13]

After 15 years of working for other companies,[7] Fossett founded his own firms, Marathon Securities and Lakota Trading, from which he made millions renting exchange memberships.[3][14][11] He founded Lakota Trading for that purpose in 1980.[15] In the early 1980s,[7] he founded Marathon Securities and extended that successful formula to memberships on the New York stock exchanges. He earned millions renting floor trading privileges (exchange memberships) to hopeful new floor traders, who would also pay clearing fees to Fossett's clearing firms in proportion to the trading activity of those renting the memberships. As of 1997, the trading volume of its rented memberships was larger than any other clearing firm on the Chicago exchange.[9] Lakota Trading replicated that same business plan on many exchanges in the United States and also in London.[7] Fossett would later use those revenues to finance his adventures.[3][14][11] Fossett said, "As a floor trader, I was very aggressive and worked hard. Those same traits help me in adventure sports."[9]

Fossett said he did not participate in any of the "interesting things" he had done in college during his time in exchange-related activities: "There was a period of time where I wasn't doing anything except working for a living. I became very frustrated with that and finally made up my mind to start getting back into things."[7] He began to take six weeks a year off to spend time on sports and eventually moved to Beaver Creek, Colorado in 1990, where for a time he ran his business from a distance.[7] Fossett later sold most of his business interests,[3][16] although he maintained an office in Chicago until 2006.[7]

Personal life

Fossett was married to Peggy Fossett (Viehland), originally from Richmond Heights, Missouri, since 1968.[12] They had no children.[15][17] The Fossetts had homes in Beaver Creek, Colorado and Chicago and a vacation home in Carmel, California.[16][12][9]

Fossett became well-known in the United Kingdom for his friendship with billionaire Richard Branson, who financed some of Fossett's adventures.[3]