There is a place where compasses don’t work, and the only thing to guide you is the sun. That’s where Wayne Maynard wanted to go, and he made it there and back recently — the North Pole. The 61-year-old Merrill Lynch financial advisor lives in Lakewood, and he’s a pilot on the side. He flew to the end of the earth in honor of his brother-in-law, Dr. Jack Bolton, who was diagnosed about a year and a half ago with esophageal and stomach cancer. He flew from Dallas to Kansas to Canada. And when he arrived at Resolute Bay in Canada’s Nunavit Province, he took off from a gravel runway for a six-hour flight across a landscape of lakes and rock as far as the eye could see on the round horizon. Flying to the North Pole long had been a goal for Maynard, who began flying when he was 18, but this time he did it for his brother-in-law. When he was about a minute away, he called Bolton, and when he was 15 seconds away, they counted down together. “He took a lot of pride in this journey,” Maynard says. But that’s not the only reason he did it. Maynard also flies for Angel Flight, a Tulsa-based nonprofit that transports people in rural areas to and from urban medical centers for dialysis, chemotherapy and other difficult treatments. Maynard says he wants to raise awareness for that charity, which relies on pilots to pay all of the expenses. Donations help offset the costs, and Maynard set up a website, northpolejourney.com, which includes a link where anyone can donate to Angel Flight.
• Also online: Listen to our podcast interview with Wayne Maynard
