Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing notes and correspondence created before, during, and after the interview.
Accession No. PA.2001.0022: Ronald K. McGregor, 2001 October
[identification of item], Ronald K. McGregor Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0104, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2020 December; finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2021 September
Commander Ronald Kenneth McGregor (1917-2011) was a member of the United States Naval Air Forces. Following his graduation from Concordia College with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a minor in biology in 1941, he enlisted in the United States Navy as a Seaman Second Class in the Navy’s aviation training program. McGregor served in the navy’s aviation unit until 1948, when he went to Naval line officer school, and then to graduate school for meteorology in Monterey, California. He then worked as an Operations Officer at Guantanamo Bay where he sent shipments of skis to Admiral Richard Byrd’s team in Little America, Antarctica for Operation High Jump (1946-1947), which fueled his interest in the polar regions.
In 1961, McGregor volunteered to join Operation Deep Freeze as a Commander of Antarctic Support Activities (CASA), a member of the Construction Battalions Atlantic, where he helped train and coordinate people and materials that were going to winter-over in Antarctica. He wintered over in Antarctica during the winter of 1961-1962 as a part of Operation Deep Freeze. By 1963, McGregor was promoted to Polar Operation Officer by the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). In this position he worked on defense projects for the Navy and worked with the Cold Regions Research Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) to perform oceanic research in the Arctic. From 1966 to his retirement from active duty in 1968, McGregor worked under Dr. Max Britton, who was the head of the Arctic Program for the Office of Naval Research. McGregor then became a Navy civil servant and worked as the head of the Arctic Program until 1982. McGregor Range in Antarctica is named for him.
The Ronald K. McGregor Oral History, dated 2001-2003, contains notes, correspondence, and transcripts of the interview between McGregor and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on October 27, 2001. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by the American Polar Society and Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics of the interview include McGregor’s pilot training, his time prepping for and traveling to Antarctica as a part of Operation Deep Freeze (1961-1962), and his work in the Office of Naval Research.
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