He is fifty-six at the time of ChrisвЂ™s death. Walt McCandlessД¬hrisвЂ™s father, Walt is an eminent aerospace engineer and the father of eight children from two marriages. He gives McCandless jobs multiple times, and becomes close to him. Wayne Westerberg is the owner of a grain elevator in Carthage, South Dakota, who meets McCandless when he picks him up hitchhiking in 1990. Butch KillianД«utch Killian is a coal miner and emergency medical technician from Healy, the closest town, who arrives at the bus soon after Samel has found McCandlessвЂ™s body. Ferdie SwansonДЇerdie Swanson is a construction worker and friend of Ken and Gordon who is with them when they find McCandlessвЂ™s body. Gordon Samel is an employee of Ken Thompson, and he is the one to find McCandlessвЂ™s body on what is supposed to be a moose hunting trip. Ken Thompson is the owner of an Anchorage body shop who is with Gordon Samel and Ferdie Swanson on a hunting trip when they find McCandlessвЂ™s body. He is the last person to see McCandless alive. Jim Gallien is a union electrician and accomplished hunter and woodsman who picks up вЂњAlexвЂќ four miles outside of Fairbanks and drives him to Denali. He then hitchhikes to Alaska, where he walks alone into the wilderness north of Mt. He graduates from Emory University with honors in 1990, and soon afterwards gives all of his savings to charity, starts going by the name of 'Alex,' abandons almost all of his possessions, and spends two years hitchhiking and traveling around the west. He grows up in a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., where he succeeds both academically and athletically. McCandless is an intelligent, extremely intense young man with a streak of stubborn idealism. Christopher McCandlessД¬hris McCandless is the subject of Into the Wild. Obsessive about mountain climbing from his teens to his late twenties, like McCandless he also has issues with male authority figures, and has a very conflicted relationship with his father. Westerberg offers him a ride, a place to stay, and then a job.Jon Krakauer is the author and narrator of Into the Wild, whose life in certain ways parallels McCandlessвЂ™s. Wayne Westerberg Grain elevator operator who befriends McCandless in north-central Montana in the fall of 1990. Ken Thompson, Gordon Samel, and Ferdie Swanson Moose hunters who happen upon the bus in which McCandless has died of starvation. Wilhelmina 'Billie' McCandless Chris's mother and Walt's second wife, who works with Walt on various business ventures involving his radar systems. Married twice, Walt McCandless has a total of eight children. Samuel Walter McCandless Chris's father, a NASA scientist and entrepreneur who develops advanced radar systems. Describes his own youthful assault on a notorious Alaskan peak to offer comparisons with and insights into McCandless's journey.Д¬arine McCandless Chris's younger sister and confidante. In April 1992, he drops off the young man on Alaska's Stampede Trail, giving McCandless his boots and advising him to reconsider his plan to live off the land. Jim Gallien Last person to see McCandless alive. After McCandless's death, Franz heeds the young man's advice to 'hit the road' and live off the grid. Ronald Franz Eighty-year-old man who gives McCandless a ride from Salton City, California, to Grand Junction, Colorado. Estranged from her own son, Jan takes a special interest in McCandless.Д¬harlie Old man who lives outside Bullhead City, Arizona, and suggests that McCandless live in an empty RV of which Charlie is a caretaker. Jan Burres and BobВ Itinerant couple who meets McCandless in the summer of 1990 when he is searching for edible berries alongside U.S. note on the rear door and perceive a rotting smell emanating from the bus. Calls himself 'Alexander Supertramp' or just 'Alex.'ДЄnchorage coupleВ Pair who stumbles upon an abandoned bus along Alaska's Sushana River in August 1992. He spends two years testing his theory throughout the western United States before entering the wilds of Alaska unprepared and starving to death. Christopher Johnson McCandlessВ Intelligent, idealistic young man who believes that life is best lived alone, in nature.

Into the wild book