Hans Albert Hochbaum (February 9, 1911, Greeley – March 2, 1988,

Portage la Prairie Portage la Prairie () is a small city in the Central Plains Region of Manitoba, Canada. As of 2016, the population was 13,304 and the land area of the city was . Portage la Prairie is approximately west of Winnipeg, along the Trans-Canada Hi ...

) was an American bird artist, writer, ornithologist and conservationist known for his work on wetland birds and the wildlife of the Canadian Arctic. He wrote several popular books on wetlands and wildfowl and was renowned for his artistry both in scratchboard illustrations and paintings. Hochbaum was born in

Greeley, Colorado Greeley is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Weld County, Colorado, Weld County, Colorado, ...

, to Hans Weller and Martha Schenck. His father was famous for the idea of

victory garden Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I ...

s which helped meet food needs during World War II. and went to school at

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ar ...

, and Washington DC before studying art at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

while also obtaining a BS in zoology studying under Arthur A. Allen. He worked at the US

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

and moved to the Delta Waterfowl Research Station in Manitoba in 1938 as science director. The station had been established in 1931 and his research there led to an MS degree in wildlife management in 1941 under Aldo Leopold. He also illustrated and wrote ''The Canvasback on a Prairie Marsh'' (1944) which won him the Literary Award of the Wildlife Society for that year. The

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

honored him with a

Brewster Medal The William Brewster Memorial Award, usually referred to as the Brewster Medal, is awarded by the American Ornithologists' Union and is named for ornithology, ornithologist William Brewster (ornithologist), William Brewster. It is given to an author ...

in 1945. At Delta, he directed research by students from numerous universities and became an honorary professor at the University of Manitoba in 1958. Hochbaum received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1961 and an honorary LLD in 1962. In 1962 he was awarded the Manitoba Golden Boy Award. He retired in 1970 and began to concentrate on art and writing and his third book ''To Ride the Wind'' (1973) came long after his second book ''Travels and Traditions of Waterfowl'' (1956). Hochbaum studied wildfowl behavior and researched conservation measures. Hochbaum illustrated his books on his own and was also a skilled painter. He had several exhibitions of his paintings and some can be found in the Smithsonian in Washington and the National Museum in Ottawa When Queen Elizabeth II visited Manitoba in 1970, one of his paintings was gifted to her. He was invested Member of the Order of Canada in 1979. Order of Canada Recipients
/ref> He married Eleanor Joan, daughter of game warden Edward Ward, in 1939 and they had three sons and a daughter. He died from a heart attack at Portage la Prairie and was buried in Prospect Cemetery. A collection of his essays was posthumously published as ''Wings Over The Prairie'' (1994) and edited by his son George.

References

External links

Memorable Manitobans: Hans Albert Hochbaum (1911-1988)

Delta Waterfowl

Al Hochbaum & The First Duck Research Facility

Travels and traditions of waterfowl (1955)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hochbaum, Hans Albert American ornithologists Wildlife artists 1911 births 1988 deaths Members of the Order of Canada 20th-century American zoologists