J. HART ROSDAIL - Photo taken in 1954
J. Hart Rosdail was born February 10, 1914, on a farm near Springville, Iowa. He was a 1929 graduate of Springville High School and a graduate of the University of Iowa. He passed away November 5, 1977.
He moved to Chicago, where he was a junior high social studies and language arts teacher. He had also worked as an investment advisor for Continental Casualty Company, a systems analyst for Marshall Field, an office manager for Continental Casualty Company and corporate secretary for the Phelps Shipping Company.
For a number of years he was listed as the world's number one globetrotter in the Guiness Book of World Records. He visited 223 of the world's 225 countries, as well as 75 additional countries which have been absorbed by other countries.
He traveled some 1,587,954 miles, appeared on national television and was featured in articles in national publications.
During his travels, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and was held prisoner in a remote area of the Sahara Desert.
He authored two world travel books and four genealogy books. One of his best known genealogy books, The Sloopers, is a history of the first Norwegian immigration to America.
His father's ancestors were Norwegian and his mother was English and German.
In 1977, while traveling in North Africa where the heat is intense, he became ill and was hospitalized in the capital city of Niamey in the Republic of Niger. In June, he was flown to Chicago and later hospitalized. Complications developed and he passed away in November of that same year.
NOTE: Photo & biographical information taken from
a page added in the front of recent editions of the Slooper book.