Man reunites with wallet he lost in Antarctica over half a century ago

A man from San Diego, California was awe-struck when he found his wallet he’d lost some 53 years ago while stationed at Antarctica.

Paul Grisham, 91, doesn’t remember losing his wallet while serving as a meteorologist in the US Navy in Antarctica in October 1967. However, the wallet was found behind a locker during the demolition of a building at McMurdo Station, the southernmost town on Earth, used to be his.

The wallet contained Grisham’s Navy ID, his driver’s license, a tax withholding statement, a recipe for homemade Kahlua and several other items other. It contained no cash, as there was nothing to buy at the station.

New Hampshire’s Stephen Decato, who previously worked for an agency that does snow cap research in Antarctica, said his former boss got in touch with him last month to seek his help in finding the owners of two wallets found during the demolition of the McMurdo Station building.

Decato’s daughter Sarah Lindbergh reached out to Bruce McKee, of the Indiana Spirit of ’45 nonprofit foundation, who contacted Gary Cox of the Naval Weather Service Association for help finding the owner of the other wallet.

Cox was able to get Decato in touch with Grisham.

The second wallet belonged to a man named Paul Howard who died in 2016. His family was grateful to receive it.

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Grisham said that the 13 months he spent in Antarctica were an unusual, memorable and sometimes tedious experience that he most remembers for the unremitting cold. The average daily temperature was 25 degrees Fahrenheit, however, in winters it dropped to as low as -65 degrees during his stay.

“Let me just say this, if I took a can of soda pop and set it outside on the step, if I didn’t retrieve it in 14 minutes it would pop open because it had frozen,” Grisham told the San Diego Unio-Tribune.