User:RWIR/Richard Russell Waldron

Richard Russell Waldron was a purser "and special agent" in the Wilkes Expedition, together with younger brother Thomas Westbrook Waldron (consul). Cape Waldron in Antarctica, and perhaps Waldron Island were named after him.

Born March 28, 1803, the oldest son of Daniel Waldron and Olive Huske Sheafe, he would have seen the 1819 bankruptcy of his father and the loss of the substantial landholdings that his family had possessed continuously since 1635.

He was a member of the Wilkes Expedition which visited Antarctica and charted much of the west coast of the then-disputed Washington state coast. In May 1841 this expedition charted the San Juan Islands of present-day Washington State, and one of the islands was named Waldron Island during this expedition.

He died unmarried on October 30, 1846, four years after the Wilkes Expedition concluded.