KEY POINTS:
William Robert Anderson, a former US congressman and captain of the Nautilus on its historic under-the-ice trips to the North Pole, has died. He was 85.
Anderson took command of the Navy's Nautilus in 1957, when the submarine cruised to within 290km of the North Pole. The next year Anderson and his crew of 115 made the first voyage from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean by passing under the ice of the North Pole.
After retiring from the Navy, Anderson served as a consultant to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, helping to create the Peace Corps.
In 1964, he was elected to his first of four terms representing the sixth district of Tennessee in Congress. Anderson was also a businessman. In 1973 he became chairman of the board of Digital Management Corp.
