High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, Jr., USN (October 25, 1888 ? March 11, 1957) was a pioneering American polar explorer, aviator and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. He was a descendant of one of the First Families of Virginia. His ancestors included planter John Rolfe and his wife Pocahontas, William Byrd II of Westover Plantation, who established Richmond, and Robert "King" Carter, a colonial governor. He was the brother of Virginia Governor and U.S. Senator Harry Flood Byrd, a dominant figure in Virginia Democratic Party between the 1920s and 1960s.