Melvin M. Payne; Retired Executive of National Geographic
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Melvin M. Payne, 79, chairman emeritus of the National Geographic Society’s board of trustees. Payne began working with the organization in 1932 as a secretary and later served as president and as chairman of the board. Under his leadership, the society backed Capt. Jacques Yves Cousteau’s underwater explorations, the first American ascent of Mt. Everest and Jane Goodall’s studies of wild chimpanzees. On Saturday in Washington of pneumonia.
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