Charles A. Bevilacqua

Charles A. Bevilacqua, head of the Seabees team that built the first permanent station at the South Pole. 1956 photo by Dick Prescott, NSF.

Charles A. Bevilacqua (June 8, 1930 – November 29, 2019) was a United States Navy Seabee who, during Operation Deep Freeze I, helped to build McMurdo Station and was then promoted to Chief Builder, in which role he led the building of Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station and the installation of the first South Pole "ceremonial pole", which he painted orange and black to honor his Woburn, Massachusetts, high school.

In 1948, he joined the Seabees, construction battalions of the United States Navy's Civil Engineer Corps, which had been set up during World War II. Bevilacqua persisted despite being turned down at first, and eventually succeeded in being taken on as an expert in building Quonset huts.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Bevilacqua was "one of the first humans ever to step foot (sic) on the geologic South Pole". Together with 18 other Seabees, he parachuted to the site to establish a camp and identify the Pole so that it could be marked. The building originated as a memorial site for US Navy Petty Office Richard Williams, who was killed early in the mission when his tractor broke through McMurdo's ice. The chapel was dedicated to "Our Lady of the Snows" in May, 1956. In 1996, when the chapel celebrated its 40th anniversary, Bevilacqua got the consent of the Williams family for the installation of a plaque that honors not only Williams but all the people who later died in Antarctica.

On December 14, 1956, Bevilacqua and his team erected a pole that remained in use as the "ceremonial South Pole" at least until 2018. The ceremonial pole was supposed to be painted with a red-and-white candy stripe, but Bevilacqua instead painted it orange and black, the colors of his Woburn high school football team. When questioned, he claimed that all other colors of paint had been frozen. The pole remained orange and black until 1980, when it was repainted to red and white. Bevilacqua also put up a sign nearby, "City Limits of Woburn", took pictures, and sent them to the local home newspaper.

He and his team then "wintered over" at the South Pole, the first people to do so.

After leaving Antarctica, Bevilacqua continued to serve in Seabees construction battalions until 1978, including service in the Vietnam War, retiring with rank of CWO4 (Warrant officer Grade 4.)

The Antarctica Society wrote of his life: "Charlie was a dedicated, focused, and gifted individual whose unending hours of punishing and innovative work in often grueling conditions helped to start the U.S. Antarctic Program on its trajectory of unexcelled polar science."