John Dryden Kuser

Born in Newark, New Jersey, on September 24, 1897, he came from an influential family: his grandfather John Fairfield Dryden founded Prudential and served in the U.S. Senate. He graduated from Princeton University in 1918, where he worked as managing editor of The Daily Princetonian, and also served in the Naval Reserve during World War I.

Kuser entered politics young, first as a councilman in Bernardsville, then in the New Jersey General Assembly, and later in the New Jersey Senate. During his years in public life, he became especially associated with bird conservation and legislation naming the eastern goldfinch as New Jersey's state bird.

He is also remembered as the author of The Birds of Somerset Hills, published in 1912. That mix of public service and interest in the natural world gives his story an appeal beyond politics alone.