A LIFE OF WANDER & WONDER
There’s no simple way to portray Robert Young Pelton’s career and his contributions to the world. He’s most famous for his book and television series, The World’s Most Dangerous Places. But before, during, and since its distribution, the guy’s been, done, and seen more than any fictional character we can think of.
Born to a broken home in the slums of Edmonton, Ontario, Canada, he used to play in traffic and taunt ruffian gangsters by the waterfront while frustrating the nuns at his elementary school, ultimately getting kicked out of school in the second grade.
He ended up at St. Johns boy school in Ontario, an institution that would later become infamous for its methods of shaping hard-case boys when a dozen students died on a wilderness canoeing trip.
Contrast this to the man before you — world traveller, author, photographer, artist, knife designer, businessman, oilfield worker, marketing consultant, publisher, and creator of regional intelligence networks. One of his early enterprises, Pelton & Associates, was 145th on the 1992 Inc. 500 list.
Depending on how, and if, you were introduced to Pelton and his work, you’ll be surprised to find out all the other lives he’s lived. If you read one of his stories in RECOIL or watched his Discovery or National Geographic shows, or saw his reporting for VICE, you’ll be surprised to learn he was hired by Steve Jobs to help with the launch of the LISA and Mac computers. Maybe you have one of his DPx Gear knives and didn’t realize he was one of the guys behind the success of both Upper Deck and TOPS trading card companies. Or, that he worked with Microsoft on
