Maurice Graham Brooks (June 16, 1900 – January 10, 1993) was an American educator and naturalist whose name became synonymous with the natural history of

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, C ...

Biography

Brooks was born on the family farm at French Creek,

Upshur County, West Virginia Upshur County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,816. Its county seat is Buckhannon. The county was formed in 1851 from Randolph, Barbour, and Lewis counties and named for Abel Parke ...

, where he maintained a residence for much of the remainder of his life. His father — photographer and local historian Fred E. Brooks — and three of his uncles were also professional naturalists or biologists. One uncle was Albert Nelson Brooks (1897–1966),Brooks, Maurice (1965), ''The Appalachians'' (Series: The Naturalist's America), Illustrated by Lois Darling and Lo Brooks,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Houghton Mifflin Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Fina ...

, p. 122. surveyor and naturalist (and namesake of the Brooks Bird Club). Maurice Brooks attended Davis and Elkins College and

West Virginia Wesleyan College West Virginia Wesleyan College is a private college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. It has an enrollment of about 1,400 students from 35 U.S. states and 26 countries. The school was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist E ...

before eventually graduating from

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

(WVU) in 1923. He was also educated at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He later taught at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. In 1934, he joined the faculty of WVU as a professor in the Biology Department. In 1938, he moved to the Division of Forestry, where he taught courses in

wildlife management Wildlife management is the management process influencing interactions among and between wildlife, its habitats and people to achieve predefined impacts. It attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best availabl ...

until his retirement in 1969. While perhaps best known for his contributions to

ornithology Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and t ...

, Brooks also made contributions to Appalachian

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

herpetology Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians ( gymnophiona)) and ...

mammalogy In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part ...

, and chemical

ecology 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 overl ...

Awards and accolades

*Member, West Virginia Conservation Commission, for eight years. *Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. *Fellow of the

American Ornithologists' Union 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 ...

. *President, Wilson Ornithological Society. *Order of Vandalia (1970), by West Virginia University. *West Virginia Man of the Year (1970), by West Virginia State Legislature. *West Virginian of the Year (1970), by Charleston '' Gazette Mail''.

Books, monographs and popular articles

*''The Pteridophytes of West Virginia'', (1938); Series: West Virginia University Studies *''Check-list of West Virginia Birds'', (1944); Bulletin: Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Home Economics, West Virginia University *"Notes on the Cheat Mountain salamander", (1948); ''

Copeia ''Ichthyology & Herpetology'' (formerly ''Copeia'') is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in ichthyology and herpetology that was originally named after Edward Drinker Cope, a prominent American researcher in these fiel ...

'' 1948:239–244. *''Effect of Black Walnut Trees and their Products on Other Vegetation'' (1951); Bulletin: Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics, West Virginia University *"Forests and Forest Research" (1963), '' West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey''; 33, 171 – 190. *''The Appalachians'' (1965); Series: The Naturalist's America, Illustrated by Lois Darling and Lo Brooks,

*''The Life of the Mountains'' (1968); Series: Our Living World of Nature,

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes refere ...

*"Remarkable Dolly Sods" (1969–70), '' Outdoor West Virginia'' itle changed to ''Wonderful West Virginia'', 1970 Nov 1969, pp 10–13; Jan 1970, pp 10–13; Feb 1970, pp 10–13.

References

Citations

Sources