Harrison B. Tordoff
Harrison Bruce "Bud" Tordoff (February 8, 1923 – July 23, 2008) was an American ornithologist and conservationist. He was brought up in Mechanicville in upstate New York, hunting and fishing, and became interested in wildlife management and zoology. He studied as an undergraduate at Cornell University, returning to complete his degree after a period of military service during World War II. He had served as a fighter pilot in the United States Army Air Forces, and his five confirmed aerial victories qualified him as a fighter ace. Tordoff completed his doctoral degree in ornithology at the University of Michigan. During his professional career, he worked as a faculty member and natural history museum curator at a number of public universities. Much of his career was spent at the University of Minnesota, where he served as director of the Bell Museum of Natural History from 1970 to 1983. He was active in ornithological and conservation organisations, and from 1978 to 1980 was president of the American Ornithologists' Union. Most of Tordoff's research was on the evolution of finches, and he is most remembered for his role in the reintroduction of the peregrine falcon in the upper Mississippi valley. Early life and education Tordoff was born in Mechanicville, New York on February 8, 1923, the youngest and the only son among the six children of Harry and Ethel Tordoff. With his father, a stonemason, he learned to hunt and fish, and spent much of his free time observing birds and other wildlife, afield with his dog. He raised ring-necked pheasants for release, and started studying wildlife management, which he expected to be his career. He later said that shooting a black-throated blue warbler and admiring its unusual plumage sparked an interest in ornithology. In 1940, Tordoff enrolled at Cornell University, where he found that his interest in the natural world could be pursued in a formal setting. While he was there, he met Robert M. Mengel (his lifelong best friend, later editor of the Auk), who encouraged his interest in ornithology, as did one of his professors, Arthur Augustus Allen. His studies were interrupted by his military service during World War II, although he managed to complete some courses while in the military. After the war, Tordoff resumed his studies and in 1946 he graduated with a B.A. degree in zoology. In graduate school at the University of Michigan from 1947 to 1950 he studied ornithology under Josselyn Van Tyne and George Miksch Sutton, earning a Ph.D. with a thesis on the systematics of finches. Military service In 1942, Tordoff enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces, and trained as a fighter pilot. He later recounted that he naively imagined flying as thrilling, and a way to avoid ground combat. His depth perception was low by Air Force standards, so he passed his vision test by watching another pilot candidate get tested, and figuring out how the settings worked on the apparatus that was used. In 1943 he earned his wings, and