John Graham (7) (1942–)

[excerpt from author's website]
John Graham shipped out on a freighter to Asia when he was 16, hitchhiked through the Algerian Revolution at 19 and was on the team that made the first ascent of Denali's North Wall at 20, a climb so dangerous it's never been repeated. He hitchhiked around the world at 22, working as a correspondent for the Boston Globe in every war he came across.

A U.S. Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he served in Libya during the 1969 revolution and in one of the most difficult and dangerous areas in Vietnam during the war there. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO's top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor for Senator John Glenn. During a posting at the United Nations, however, his life began to turn. He became deeply involved in U.S. human rights initiatives, including the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Since 1983 he's been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project.