Paul Lester Errington

Background

Paul Errington was born on June 14, 1902, in Bruce, South Dakota, United States.

Education

In 1921 Paul graduated from Brookings High School in Brookings, South Dakota, United States. From his earliest days, he was intrigued by the natural world and its series of interrelationships.

Errington entered South Dakota State College, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree, in 1929. Then he went on to attend the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, which he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree, in 1932.

Career

At the age of 14, Paul commenced a career in hunting and trapping, focusing on his family’s South Dakota farm. Through an industrial fellowship, from 1929 to 1932, focusing on Wisconsin quail, Errington met Aldo Leopold, the man who would serve as both mentor and colleague. Although Leopold was not technically a faculty member, he did participate in Errington’s preliminary and final Doctor of Philosophy examinations, and Errington depended greatly on Leopold’s expertise. Errington credits Leopold for teaching him that making comments and determinations about animal fluctuations should be dependent on data and facts, not merely personal experience in the field.

In 1932 Errington joined the faculty of Iowa State College as a research assistant professor in zoology. Errington’s career at Iowa State flourished, and he was promoted to associate professor in 1938 and professor in 1948, serving in that capacity until his death. He spent his entire career at Iowa State, except for a stint as a visiting professor at Lund University in Sweden, where he studied population dynamics. He also went on to lead the first Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit in the United States, located at Iowa State. The unit focused on the various state and local aspects of wildlife management by sponsoring research and providing training through the college’s Extension Service.

Errington was considered an international authority on the phenomena of predation and automatic mechanisms of population regulation for vertebrates. His professional areas of expertise included vertebrate ecology and population dynamics, and he was a proponent of the concept that predators be considered part of the “balance of nature.” As a specialist in population dynamics, he collected data on bobwhite quail, mink, muskrats, and great horned owls. For many years he was engaged in collecting much needed data on various environmental areas, and his research demonstrated the importance of fieldwork and sustained data collection over long periods of time.

Paul Lester wrote more than 200 scholarly articles focused on his areas of research, but he wrote literary works that became immensely popular. His books included Muskrat Populations, awarded the Iowa State University Pressaward for faculty publications, Of Men and Marshes, The Red Gods Call, Of Predation and Life, and A Question of Values, published posthumously.

Achievements

• In 1961 Life magazine selected Errington as one of 10 outstanding naturalists in the United States.
  
  Iowa State University now sponsors the annual Errington Memorial Lecture, bringing to the campus eminent lecturers in the fields of wildlife and behavioral ecology whose research evokes the spirit of Paul Errington.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Of men and marshes 1957
  • Muskrats and Marsh Management 1961
  • Muskrat populations 1963
  • Of predation and life 1969
  • Of Wilderness and Wolves
  • The Red Gods Call 1973

Membership

Errington was a member of numerous professional and academic societies, including Sigma Xi, the Wildlife Society, the American Society of Zoologists, the Ecological Society of America, the Iowa Academy of Science, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow).

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  In 1952 Paul Lester was named a Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union.

  American Ornithologists’ Union

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• In 2000 Carolyn Errington remarked during the dedication ceremony for the newly created Errington Marsh in Story County, Iowa: “Paul had two distinguishing personal qualities that made his professional career practically inevitable. He was intensely curious about free-living wild creatures, and he was extraordinarily sensitive to beauty in the out-of-doors.”

Connections

In 1934, Paul Lester married Carolyn Storm. They had two sons, Peter Lester and Frederick Lester.

Spouse:

Carolyn Storm

Son:

Peter Lester

Son:

Frederick Lester

References

• The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa Iowa has been blessed with citizens of strong character who have made invaluable contributions to the state and to the nation. In the 1930s alone, such towering figures as John L. Lewis, Henry A. Wallace, and Herbert Hoover hugely influenced the nation’s affairs.
  2008