As a young boy growing up in Garden Grove, California, Steve Fossett (1944–2007) began cultivating his love of adventure. He lived near both the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ana Mountains. His love of the outdoors led him to become a Boy Scout, and by the time he reached the age of 13, he was an Eagle Scout—the Boy Scouts’ highest rank. Being an Eagle Scout taught him how to prepare for and adapt to nature’s harsh conditions, a trait that suited him well in his life of adventure.
After graduating high school, he attended Stanford University where he earned an economics degree in 1966, followed with a master’s in business administration two years later from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Even while he was studying and preparing for a business career, he climbed mountains and swam the Dardanelles, the strait along northwest Turkey.
