Aldo Leopold was born in Burlington, Iowa in 1887. After earning B.Ph. (Bachelor of
Philosophy) and M.F. (Master of Forestry) degrees from Yale University in 1909, he joined
the US Forest Service and was assigned to the Southwestern district, where he served on the
Apache and Carson National Forests and in the district headquarters at Albuquerque, rising
to Chief of Operations. In 1924 he left the Southwest for Wisconsin, to become associate
director of the US Forest Products Laboratory in Madison. He left the Forest Service in 1928
to conduct game surveys for the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute, and
during the next few years helped lay the foundations for the new profession of wildlife
management. He accepted a chair of game management created at the University of Wisconsin in
1933, and in 1939 became chairman of a new Department of Wildlife Management. He died on 21
April 1948.
