Robert Allen Cooley (27 June 1873 – 16 November 1968) was a US

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

. Born in

Deerfield, Massachusetts Deerfield is a New England town, town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. Settled near the Connecticut River in the 17th century during the colonial era, the population was 5,090 as of the 2020 census. ...

, he studied at Massachusetts Agricultural College and worked at

Montana State College Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 68 fields, and doctoral degrees in 35 field ...

. He was appointed the first state entomologist for

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

in 1903, and worked on Rocky Mountain spotted fever, studying the life cycle of the tick that transmits the ''

Rickettsia ''Rickettsia'' is a genus of nonmotile, gram-negative, nonspore-forming, highly pleomorphic bacteria that may occur in the forms of cocci (0.1 μm in diameter), bacilli (1–4 μm long), or threads (up to about 10 μm long). The term "rickett ...

'' bacteria that cause the disease. He also worked on the eradication of the disease, and from 1931 until his retirement in 1946, he was head entomologist at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory, Hamilton, Montana, where the vaccine was developed. Cooley died at the age of 95 in Hamilton. The Cooley Laboratory at

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 6 ...

is named in his honour.

Sources and further reading

*Kohls, G.M.; Robert Allen Cooley, 1873-1968, J Econ Entomol. 1969 Aug; 62(4): 972. *'Cooley, Robert Allen' (p. 270) in Volume 54 of ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography'' (1973) *Jannotta, Sepp
Robert Cooley
The Montana State University Magazine: Mountains and Minds, 12 October 2012

125 Montana Newsmakers (Great Falls Tribune)
Robert A. Cooley Residence
in 'Bon Ton Historical District' (Montana History Wiki)
Symposium to celebrate MSU's Cooley Lab renovation
(Montana State University)
Address Delivered on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Gittinger-Kerlee Memorial
(1929, Robert A. Cooley) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooley, Robert Allen 1873 births 1968 deaths American entomologists American parasitologists Massachusetts Agricultural College alumni