Angus M. Woodbury

Angus Munn Woodbury (July 11, 1886 – August 1, 1964) was an American zoologist and ecologist from Utah. He was professor at the University of Utah for over 20 years, and also worked for many years as a ranger-naturalist at Zion National Park. He produced over 100 publications, many focused on the biology of reptiles and birds, but also on insects, ecological succession, and the history of Utah. He and his wife of 55 years, Grace Atkin Woodbury, died in an automobile collision on August 1, 1964, near Loveland, Colorado.

Early life Angus Woodbury was born July 11, 1886, in St. George, Utah, to parents John Taylor and Mary Evans Woodbury. His elementary education was divided between Salt Lake City, where his father taught at LDS College, and St. George. He attended Brigham Young High School in Provo, graduating after two years in 1906.

From 1926 to 1927 Woodbury attended Brigham Young University, earning a B.S. in zoology. From 1927 to 1928 he attended the University of Utah, completing an M.S. degree focused on the reptiles of Utah. After graduating he joined the University of Utah faculty, teaching for the 1928–29 academic year before taking leave to obtain a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, which he completed in 1931. He returned to the University of Utah in 1931 and remained there until retirement in 1952, after which he continued to be active in research and administration. In 1977, the area where Woodbury and Hardy studied was designated the Woodbury Desert Study Area by the Bureau of Land Management, and is now a part of the Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area.

Woodbury was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Ornithological Union, the Herpetological League, and the Utah Academy of Science, Arts and Letters. and a subspecies of chisel-toothed kangaroo rat, Dipodomys microps woodburyi.

Personal life and family Woodbury married Grace Atkin on January 15, 1909. The couple had four sons and two daughters: sons Lowell Angus, Dixon Miles, and John Walter all obtained Ph.D.s in biology, while son Max Atkin Woodbury obtained a Ph.D. in mathematics. Daughters Marian and Edith Rae both married biology Ph.Ds.

Angus and Grace Woodbury were both killed in a head-on car collision on August 1, 1964, one mile north of Loveland, Colorado.

Books

503 pp. 104 pp.