A son of the South Dakota prairies, Bob developed what became a life-long fascination with sunrises, sunsets, wildlife, rivers and the land while working on his parent’s farm near Madison, South Dakota and courting his life-partner, Karen. He completed degrees in zoology, plant ecology, wildlife ecology and physiology at South Dakota State, VPI and Colorado State and was employed by game and fish agencies in South Dakota and Colorado. He served in the USAF, researching the effects of extreme space environments and joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Cooperative Wildlife Research Units program in 1972. Twenty years were spent in various Service Research locations, primarily in the West. He became part of the North American Waterfowl Plan operations in 1988, and established the North American Wetlands Conservation Act program, working from the Arctic to Argentina. Bob was appointed as the Assistant Director, Refuges and Wildlife in 1995 and retired from the Service at the end of 1999. He has worked for Ducks Unlimited and Colorado Trout Unlimited and recently completed an appointment as Wildlife Commissioner in Colorado. He served as Environmental Representative on the South Platte Roundtable for eight years. Bob and Karen live near Fort Collins, CO, and remain active, volunteering on various state and local conservation organizations, local arts enterprises, and schools. Gardening, hunting and fishing, viticulture and enology, grandchildren and travel fill in the slack times.