(1920 - 1988)

Jackson Miles Abbott was born in Philadelphia on January 25, 1920, but was raised in New England and Southern California. He learned his painting and drawing techniques from his father, the late Jacob Bates Abbott, a well known wildlife artist who was for many years art director of Yankee magazine in Dublin, New Hampshire. Where they lived didn't matter to young Jack, as long as there were birds he could study - ornithology has been his hobby since he was six years old. After high school, he returned to Pennsylvania to major in zoology at Swarthmore College.

In 1941 Mr. Abbott joined the Army and became a member of a camouflage unit that was sent to the Caribbean in February 1942. He spent two years there designing, erecting, and maintaining camouflage of Army defenses, and then was sent to the Army Engineers Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir, from which he graduated in August 1943.

During the campaign in France, Belgium, and Germany, he worked chiefly in land-mine warfare and was decorated with a Bronze Star. After the war he served as an intelligence officer and also as a writer of technical field manuals and training publications at the Army Engineer School on land-mine warfare, field fortifications and camouflage.

He left active duty in 1949 to accept a position with the Army Map Service as a Technical Intelligence Specialist, assisting in the training of Engineer Technical Intelligence Teams that were to serve in Korea. Since then he has worked for various Engineer Combat Development groups, and is now an Operations Research Specialist. He has been active in the Organized Reserve Corps and holds a reserve commission as Lieutenant Colonel in the Corps of Engineers.

However, all this technical and military work is only part of Mr. Abbott's life, and if World War II hadn't intervened, he might now be a full time professional ornithologist with, perhaps, military engineering as a hobby. Certainly he devotes a large part of his time to bird study. During one seven month period he banded 1400 birds for the Fish and Wildlife Service as part of a study of migration. He paints and sketches them, has written a column for a Sunday magazine on the birds to be seen in the Washington area, gives lectures on natural history, and writes articles for magazines.

More of Mr. Abbott's work in describing and illustrating birds can be seen in the book Beginner's Guide to Attracting Birds by Hausman, published by Putnam in 1951.

Mr. Abbott was president of the Waynewood Civic Association, co-chairman of the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Association, an officer in the Virginia Society of Ornithology, a Sunday School teacher, and a member of the Audubon Society.

Mrs. Abbott is the former Frances Dowdle of Columbia, South Carolina. Her nickname is "Smokey."