Peter Cyril Byrne: WWII Veteran, Conservationist, Explorer, Author
At age 97 Peter Byrne passed peacefully in Tillamook, Oregon on July 28, 2023. He was born August 22, 1925 in Dublin, Ireland. On the family estate Peter was raised with three siblings. In 1943 he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and was stationed in the East Indian Ocean on the Coco’s Islands off of Australia where he served with distinction until the war ended.
After the war Peter became a tea planter in northeast India. After a serendipitous encounter in Bombay, he became friends with the King of Nepal’s brother and was granted property in Nepal where Peter conducted hunting safaris in the White Grass Plains of western Nepal.
After 18 years of big game hunting, in 1968 he turned to conservation in Nepal where he convinced the government to create a wildlife preserve, and eventually establish the Sukila Phanta National Park. He said, “I showed them that taking a photograph of a rhinoceros was worth 1,000 times more than shooting it once.” He also pioneered Nepal river rafting, and trekking expeditions during his many lengthy trips to the country.
During the Nepal years, Peter also established the non-profit International Wildlife Conservation Society. In the interests of the Society, he traveled globally and through his magnetic personality, established many friends and gained honors, among them a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and membership in the Explorers Club of New York. But, spiritually, he was forever drawn to the Himalayas, with his last trip to Nepal thought to be in 2012.
In Nepal, Peter was sought after by Texas oil man Tom Slick. Slick financed a two year Byrne Himalayan expedition to find the fabled yeti. After few results were found of the yeti, in 1960 Slick brought Peter to northern California and the Pacific Northwest USA to track Bigfoot. That search unfortunately ended with Slick’s sudden death in an airplane crash in 1962.
Thereafter, Peter conducted two other, long and well-funded northern Oregon Bigfoot projects. Again, with no physical evidence of Bigfoot, those projects ended in the late 1990s. Peter then moved to Los Angeles, but after never really feeling at home in the overcrowded city, he retired to a cabin on the banks of the Nestucca River in Pacific City, Oregon.
In Pacific City, Peter continued to write the remainder of his 20 books. He also wandered the mountains of the Coastal Range with friends in his continuing quest for sightings of Bigfoot.
Peter Cyril Byrne is survived by his daughter Rara Byrne now living in Perth, Australia, his sister Beryl Green of Maidenhead, England, and his life partner of more than 25 years, Cathy Griffin in Pacific City, Oregon who lives in the riverside cabin they shared.
Remembrances: A journalism scholarship has been established in his honor: “The Peter Byrne endowed scholarship fund in journalism for the talent and love of writing.” Please send checks or funds payable to the Nestucca High School, P.O. Box 38, Cloverdale, OR 97112.
For the scheduling of a celebration of life for Peter, please see his website at peterCbyrne.com.
