Ira Gabrielson at Upper Mississippi River Refuge

Cigar-chomping Ira Noel Gabrielson (1889-1997), second chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey, studies a report during a 1937 site inspection and Congressional tour of Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Gabrielson was credited with being one of the agency’s most astute leaders – a man of keen political instincts and fierce devotion to the National Wildlife Refuge System in an era of tremendous growth and expansion of the fledgling conservation system. An Iowa native, Gabrielson was grounded in the natural history of the upper Midwest, though his expertise ranged from bird life in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest to seafood production on the home front during World War II.