Conrad Selwyn Shinn was born on Sept. 12, 1922, in Leaksville, N.C., a small mill town since consolidated with two others.
His father, Thomas Pinkney Shinn, was a secretary at a local Y.M.C.A. His mother, Mattie Jane (Krimminger) Shinn, ran the household. Conrad was drawn to flying by the trailblazing exploits of aviators like Charles Lindbergh, who made the first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic in 1927, and Wiley Post, who flew the first solo flight around the world, in 1933.
Commander Shinn studied aeronautical engineering at North Carolina State College (now a university), joined the Navy in 1942, and then graduated from aviation school and received his commission in 1943. After the war, he married Gloria Roberson Carter, a legal secretary. She died in 2004.
Along with his two daughters, he is survived by a son, David; a sister, Jean Shinn Hart; and a grandson.
Commander Shinn’s pioneering flight showed that remote research stations could be supported by air. Today, planes land routinely at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. In his oral history interview, he said he had probably landed six miles from the actual pole. Mr. Cutler’s initial United Press dispatch said four miles.
Given the circumstances of the time, Commander Shinn said, “it was the best we could do.”
“Close enough,” Ms. Belanger, his interviewer, replied.
