author
Robert Morrow Mengel
b. 1921
A lifelong bird expert, illustrator, and teacher, he built a career where science and art stayed closely linked. Best known for his work in ornithology and for writing about the birds of Kentucky, he spent much of his professional life at the University of Kansas.
1 Audiobook
Studies of Birds Killed in Nocturnal Migration
by Harrison Bruce Tordoff, Robert Morrow Mengel
About the author
Born in Glenview, Kentucky, in 1921, Robert Morrow Mengel developed an early interest in birds and in drawing natural history subjects. He later earned master's and doctoral degrees in zoology at the University of Michigan after military service during World War II.
In 1953 he joined the University of Kansas, where he worked first on the Ellis Collection of ornithological books and then served for years at the Museum of Natural History, eventually becoming curator of ornithology. He was also a professor at Kansas, and his work ranged across systematics, ecology, bibliography, and bird history.
Mengel is remembered not only as a scientist and writer, but also as an artist whose bird paintings and illustrations remained an important part of his life. He died in Lawrence, Kansas, on January 15, 1990, at age 68.