She is 98 years old and lived an astonishing and important life. Helen grew up in California and met her husband Frank Schreider at UCLA, where she was studying art. On their honeymoon, they began traveling and soon after embarked on their first great exploration from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (1954–56) in an amphibious jeep. Helen and Frank Schreider became the first people, along with their German shepherd Dinah, to travel and explore the length of the Americas solely by means of their own vehicle, an amphibious jeep they called Tortuga.

Throughout their treacherous, action-packed adventure, Helen drew and later painted the fascinating people, animals, jungles, and oceans they encountered along the way. Upon completion, Helen and Frank wrote the book 20,000 Miles South, illustrated with Helen’s art and their photography. Frank was inducted into the Explorers Club in 1956, but Helen was not allowed to join because she was a woman. You can see her surprise in this video, when she finally became a National Member of the Explorers Club at the age of 89 years old.

In 1956, the Schreiders went on to conduct a national speaking tour with the film of their 20,000 Miles South journey, where they met Dr. Melville Grosvenor, head of the National Geographic Society. For the next fifteen years, Helen and Frank, accompanied by their German shepherd companion, completed a series of six additional expeditions memorialized over seven National Geographic feature articles and two additional books, cementing their reputation as acclaimed explorers.

On their next two expeditions, they traveled the Ganges River in India, and then island-hopped the archipelago of Indonesia via amphibious jeep. Helen and Frank met the most fascinating people and explored the world’s most exotic locations. Helen captured the faces, cultures, and landscapes they traversed in her drawings and paintings. Together, she and Frank created a film about India and wrote a second book about their life-changing adventures, The Drums of Tonkin.

During the ensuing years, they investigated the politics and beauty of Taiwan, met Dr. Leaky while exploring the Great Rift Valley in Africa, and retraced the footsteps of Alexander the Great in a Range Rover they called Bucephalus some 24,000 miles from Greece through the Middle East to India.

On their final adventure in 1969, they became the first people to navigate and map the entire length of the Amazon River in a boat they built themselves called the Amazon Queen. Significantly, they determined that the Amazon was longer than the Nile. They documented the expedition in the National Geographic book, Exploring the Amazon. The Schreider’s discovery of the length of the Amazon was acknowledged in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1971 and was eventually confirmed by the National Geographic Society in 2007.

Helen and Frank Schreider traveled and lived in more than fifty countries on five continents. Using myriad talents, they documented these adventures through film, photography, art, and writing, resulting in three books, seven feature articles for National Geographic, contributions to nine other books, and three nationwide speaking film tours. Helen met further success when she became a museum exhibit designer for the National Park Service, receiving a Presidential Design Award in 1976 for her work creating the Statue of Liberty Bicentennial exhibition, “Lady in the Harbor.”

Helen retired to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she continued to paint and draw well into her her 90s. Helen was a compassionate protector, defender, and lover of animals, and they were the subject of many paintings, drawings, and a book. Frank Schreider died in 1994. Helen spent her last twenty-five years with her partner, Dr. John Ryan of Winnipeg, Canada. They traveled together, and shared their love of art and their compassion for animals. Dr. Ryan supported Helen’s art legacy, and wrote the book A Tale of Two Kitties about Helen’s cats. In their travels together, they visited Cuba, Peru (Machu Picchu), China, and Canada. Helen’s large body of artwork has been exhibited publicly many times through galleries and museums in solo and group shows. A collection of her artwork may be viewed here.

Helen was deeply grateful to her supportive family and friends and leaves behind many special people who cared for her deeply, including her partner, Dr. John Ryan; her brother, Don Armstrong; her sister- in-law/best friend, Darlene Armstrong, who passed away three months prior; nieces Camille, Renee, Merle, and nephew Mark, and their families. A celebration of life will be planned for a future date.

Donations may be made to help complete a feature length film on Helen’s life (above).