Marvin, Ross Gilmore, 1880-1909

Ross Gilmore Marvin (b. January 28, 1880, Elmira, New York-d. April 10, 1909), educator and explorer, was a graduate of Cornell University and the New York Nautical School. He participated in two polar expeditions under the leadership of Robert E. Peary. It was near the end of the Peary Polar Expedition of 1908-1909 that Marvin died under mysterious circumstances. According to publisher and exlporer George Palmer Putnam, Marvin was shot to death by a Greenland native "Eskimo" name Kudlooktoo. As a cover-up of the true story, Kudlooktoo and fellow native Inukisoq, fabricated a story that Marvin had drowned after falling through "rubber ice while trying to cross a lead."

In between trips to the Arctic, Marvin was an engineering professor at Cornell University. He took a leave of absence from that post in order to travel with Peary in 1908.