Bradford Washburn, the Man Who Measured Everest

Bradford Washburn, who founded the Boston Museum of Science and directed a 1999 effort that revised the official elevation of Mount Everest, died Wednesday, at age 96.

The effort to remeasure Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak, found its altitude was 29,035 feet, 7 feet higher than previously recorded. In 1988, Washburn and wife Barbara, had already produced the first highly detailed, comprehensive relief map of Everest and its surroundings.

Washburn climbed some of the world's most challenging mountains and He also took the first large-format photos of Alaska's Mount McKinley in 1936, and explored the mountain extensivly with his wife.

Washburn ran the Boston Museum for 41 years, from 1939. He transformed the then - New England Museum of Natural History, from a facility with 12 staffers, a handful of volunteers and some 35,000 visitors, into the Boston contemporary Museum of Science, which attracts more than 1.4 million people annually and has 300 staff members and 700 volunteers.