1887–1948 · American forester, wildlife ecologist, professor of game management
Aldo Leopold was born in Burlington, Iowa on 11 January 1887 and spent his career in forestry and wildlife science, becoming professor of game management at the University of Wisconsin in 1933 — the first professorship of its kind. He died of a heart attack on 21 April 1948 while helping neighbours fight a grass fire near his Baraboo farm, a year before the book that made his name appeared. A Sand County Almanac, assembled from his shack sketches and essays, has since sold over two million copies in ten languages and remains the founding text of the “land ethic.”