Sue Hendrickson

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Sue Hendrickson
Born
Susan Hendrickson

(1949-12-02) December 2, 1949 (age 74)
marine archaeology

Susan Hendrickson (born December 2, 1949) is an American explorer and fossil collector. Hendrickson is best known for her discovery of the remains of a

fossils and artifacts
around the world.

Early life

Hendrickson was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Lee and Mary Hendrickson; her family soon moved to nearby Munster, Indiana, where she grew up.[1] She has two siblings: an older brother, John,[2] and her younger sister, Karen. Her father was a successful railroad purchasing agent, while her mother worked at American Airlines.[2]

In 1955, Hendrickson was enrolled at Munster's public elementary school, frequently being praised by her teachers as "a good student and obedient child".

aquarists
and pet stores.

Aside from her work as a diver, Hendrickson also worked part of the year as a lobster fisherman, and would occasionally take the summer off to volunteer on paleontological digs. She later moved to

GED, and considered enrolling at the University of Washington in order to pursue a marine biology degree, but decided against it, leaving Seattle after a year and moving back to Florida to pursue her diving career.[5]

Career

In 1963, Hendrickson had a large circle of friends in the diving business, and one day was invited to participate in a salvage diving expedition off the Florida Keys, which she eagerly undertook. Her job was to retrieve valuable building materials that were stored in a cargo freighter which ran aground on a coral reef.[6] While continuing her work in salvage, Hendrickson soon found herself exploring old shipwrecks, later going to the Dominican Republic. She was fascinated by working in the company of archaeologists and fell in love with the country, visiting the island often.[7]

By the mid-1980s, Hendrickson had also attempted mining amber in the Dominican mountains. She had become one of the largest amber providers for scientists. Hendrickson also found three perfect 23-million-year-old butterflies, which make up a half of the whole world's total collection. Although she found the work too monotonous to pursue full-time, writing that "You could dig for months and find nothing in the Dominican caves,"[8] she continued studying paleo entomology, becoming an expert at identifying fossilized insects.

T. rex specimen discovered by Sue Hendrickson

She also met Swiss paleontologist Kirby Siber, who allowed her to join his team consisting of paleontologists Carlos Martin and

Black Hills Institute in South Dakota. By this time, paleontology had become her main passion.[10]
On August 12, 1990, while examining a cliff-side in South Dakota with a team from the Black Hills Institute, she discovered a Tyrannosaurus rex specimen – the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. rex ever found. The specimen was later named "Sue" in her honor.

In 1992, Hendrickson joined a team of marine

.

In 2005, Glamour magazine honored her in their "Glamour Woman of the Year Awards". In 2001, she published an autobiography entitled Hunt for the Past: My Life as an Explorer (New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc). In 2008, she was featured on the "Dare to Explore" chapter of National Geographic Kids.

Hendrickson now[

University of Illinois at Chicago in 2000.[11]

References

Footnotes
  1. ^ Gaines, p. 15
  2. ^ a b Gaines, p. 16
  3. ^ Gaines, p. 17
  4. ^ Gaines, p. 23
  5. ^ Gaines, p. 26
  6. ^ Gaines, p. 29
  7. ^ Gaines, p. 35
  8. ^ Gaines, p. 37
  9. ^ a b Gaines, p. 41
  10. ^ Gaines, p. 44
  11. ^ "Biography". sue-hendrickson.net. Archived from the original on January 1, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
Bibliography

External links