Morton John Elrod (27 April 1863 - 19 January 1953) was an American

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and professor at the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

. He founded the Flathead Lake Biological Station in 1899. It was established to encourage research and field education and has been the site of numerous long-term biological studies. He was also appointed by the

American Bison Society The American Bison Society (ABS) was founded in 1905 to help save the bison from extinction and raise public awareness about the species by pioneering conservationists and sportsmen including Ernest Harold Baynes (the Society's first secretary), ...

to examine potential reserves in Montana which led to the establishment of the

National Bison Range The Bison Range (BR) is a nature reserve on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana established for the conservation of American bison. Formerly called the National Bison Range, the size of the bison herd at the BR is 350 adult bison ...

. A keen photographer and researcher, he conducted research and wrote several books on a variety of topics. A number of species have been named in Elrod's honor by researchers. Elrod was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, the son of John Morton Elrod. He went to Simpson College from where he received a BA (1887) after which he taught at a high school in

Corydon, Iowa Corydon is a city in Wayne County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,526 in the 2020 census, a decline from 1,591 in 2000. It is the county seat of Wayne County. The town was laid out and platted in 1851 and later that year designated a ...

. He continued studies and joined the Illinois Wesleyan University and received an MA (1890) and MS (1898) while also teaching there. In 1896 he took up a position in the University of Montana at Missoula. He taught subjects in biology as well as photography, in which he took a keen interest himself. He also set up a natural history museum. He encouraged his students to learn first-hand from observation and emphasized education in the field. He founded the Flathead Lake Biological Station with a view to using it for research and education, especially due to its convenient location for Montana students. He also examined the area for its potential to support a bison reserve. He published numerous scientific papers as well as wrote poetry and on matters of history and philosophy. He did not receive much support from the University and especially found himself at loggerheads with the administration by its president Oscar John Craig. One of the students who admired Elrod was

Harold C. Urey Harold Clayton Urey ( ; April 29, 1893 – January 5, 1981) was an American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 for the discovery of deuterium. He played a significant role in the d ...

who later won a Nobel Prize. Elrod married Emma Hartshorn in 1888. A stroke in 1934 ended his career and after the death of his wife in 1938, he was taken care of by his daughter. A couple of land molluscs ''Oreohelix elrodi'', ''Stagnicola elrodi'', and an annelid ''Rhynchelmis elrodi'' are among the species named in his honor.Hendricks, P. 1998. Rediscovery of Discus brunsoni Berry, 1955 and Oreohelix alpina (Elrod, 1901) in the Mission Mountains, Montana, with comments on Oreohelix elrodi (Pilsbry, 1900). The Nautilus 112:58-62.

References

Other sources

External links

Flathead Lake Biological Station

Field Notes from a Century on the Shoreline

Morton J. Elrod: Glacier Park Naturalist

The Butterflies of Montana (1906)

Morton J. Elrod Papers, 1885-1959
(University of Montana Archives)
Some lakes of Glacier National Park (1912)
{{Authority control American biologists