Vilhjalmur Stefansson's parents emigrated to this country from Iceland. The younger Stefansson chose to make Arctic exploration and research his life's work. His first visit to the Arctic was in 1906-1907 as part of an expedition studying the Mackenzie River delta. When a ship he was planning to meet became icebound, he was forced to live with the Eskimos of the delta for a year.

Stefansson concluded that anyone could live in the Arctic if he lived as the Eskimos do. From 1908-1912, he led an expedition north of the Canadian Northwest Territories for the American Museum of Natural History and the Canadian government. He later lectured at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, about his belief that a five -year diet of high protein and animal fat had not impaired his health in any way. He argued the merits of a high-protein diet and wrote Cancer: Disease of Civilization in 1960.