Vilhjalmur Stefansson

"Adventures are a mark of incompetence!"

- Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was the President of the Explorers' Club.

Biography
In 1933, Vilhjalmur Stefansson encountered fellow Explorers' Club member Marcus Brody and his friend Indiana Jones outside of The Majestic in New York City. Brody had intended for Jones to join the club but when Stefansson discovered who Jones was, he was aghast that Brody even associated himself with the man and suggested he was more careful about the company he kept.

However, after Jones was reinstated at Princeton University and recovered the stolen Voynich Manuscript, Stefansson extended an offer for Jones to join the Explorers' Club through Brody but Jones refused, having no wish to join a club that would have have himself as a member.

Personality and traits
Vilhjalmur Stefansson possessed a beard, cane and suit that Indiana Jones thought were more at home in the Victorian era. Stefansson believed that adventures were a mark of incompetence and dismissed Jones as nothing ut a graverobber.

Behind the scenes
Vilhjalmur Stefansson's position as Explorers' Club president in Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone is anachronistic. Stefansson's presidency ran from 1919-1922 and 1937-1939 and the novel takes place in 1933.