EDWIN R. KALMBACH D.Sc. Dr. Kalmbach was one of the nation's leading wildlife biologists: a research scientist, scholar, writer, administrator, conservationist and inventor. He is listed in biographical encyclopedias as an ornithologist and mammalogist; he has an international reputation as an economic biologist; he was a fine photographer and wildlife artist. He asked the author not to go overboard in recounting his achievements-that it was all in the day's work and he had fun doing it. However, even a minimum listing is impressive. He was born on April 29, 1884 in Grand Rapids Michigan. He married in 1908 and has three children. He is now a widower. Dr. Kalmbach's first job was as Assistant Director of the Kent Science Museum, from 1903 to 1910. In July 1910 he joined the Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture, predecessor agency of the Fish and Wildlife Service, as a biologist. His work at this time consisted of making field studies and authoritative reports on the crow, blackbird, magpie, starling, house sparrow, and other wildlife; these were a significant contribution to our knowledge of wildlife and established a firm factual foundation for conservation work and wildlife management. In 1928 Dr. Kalmbach was assigned to a particularly serious and baffling wildlife problem. His research soon led to the discovery of avian botulism, a devastating malady of western waterfowl; this, combined with other findings, formed the basis of a telling campaign against duck sickness. The Fish and Wildlife Service had a newly established food-habits laboratory in Denver, and in 1932 Dr. Kalmbach was sent there as its Director. For eight years his attention was focused on problems relating to bird depredations. The Denver Wildlife Research Laboratory was set up under his guidance in 1940, and here techniques were developed for controlling nuisance animals with a minimum of harm to beneficial wildlife. He often showed a great inventiveness in improvising mechanisms to be used in research, thus earning his appellation as an inventor. At the same time, he was doing a great deal of writing-he is the author of more than 40 publications and wildlife illustration, including the design of a duck stamp. Dr. Kalmbach chose the ruddy ducks for his duck stamp because it is the only North American specie in which the drake commonly stays with the female and ducklings during their downy-young period. He featured the brood because it represents the purpose for which duck stamp funds are used: the perpetuation and enhancement of the species. When Dr. Kalmbach retired from the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1954, after more than 43 years of public service, he received the highest honor the Department of the Interior can bestow: the Distinguished Service Award. Soon after his retirement, the University of Colorado conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of his outstanding record as a research biologist. Dr. Kalmbach also received one of the most coveted awards in wildlife conservation, an honor that has been conferred upon only one other duck stamp artist, J. N. Darling. It is the Leopold Medal, presented to him by the Wildlife Society at the annual meeting in St. Louis in 1958. He was cited for outstanding work in the fields of conservation and wildlife management. Another fine award he got in the same year was the Founder's Award of the Izaak Walton League-a bronze plaque. Dr. Kalmbach was a member of the American Society of Mammalogists; Cooper Ornithologists Society; Wilson Society of Ornithologists; a fellow of the Ornithologists Union; and an honorary member of the Wildlife Society. |
Russell Fink Gallery |