[1] A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the captain of the Union High School football team that won the state championship in 1931.

He sometimes has been confused with Antone "Tony" Dauksza, his cousin, who played as a quarterback for the 1933 National Champions Michigan Wolverines.

He eventually converted his love of the outdoors into his full-time occupation, exploring in the summers and conducting film-lectures in the winter.

[3][4] In the fall of 1959, Dauksza attracted the attention of a reporter for the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix as he passed through Saskatoon in his Volkswagen van (dubbed the "Volksbeast") bearing "a set of rare double-browed Caribou antlers of 393 points and a set of 63-1/2-inch moose antlers as well as several lesser trophies.

The Arctic Ocean was iced in by the time he arrived, and Dauksza was forced to walk to an Eskimo camp.

"[3] He traveled with a small igloo tent, a Winchester rifle, a movie camera, and a three-horsepower engine to help him traverse the most difficult passages.

"[9] Dauksza reported that his wife had accepted him as a "hopeless case" and was content to have him home in Grand Rapids in the winters where he conducted film-lectures on his adventures at churches, schools and clubs throughout Michigan and Indiana.

He was iced in for 12 days but managed to complete the journey, traveling from Spence Bay to Bellot Strait east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago at the tip of Boothia Peninsula.

[3][11] Interviewed in 1972 by The Christian Science Monitor, Dauksza explained that he loved the quiet of the Arctic's enormous desolation.