Lawrence Zeleny

Lawrence Zeleny (April 30, 1904 — May 27, 1995) was an American biochemist most notable for his founding of the North American Bluebird Society in 1978. During his 30-year career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he noticed a decline in the numbers of bluebirds. After his retirement in 1965, he began a decades-long crusade to save the bird.

Biography Zeleny was born on April 30, 1904, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the younger of two sons of Anthony and Mattie Zeleny. For his elementary education, he attended the Motley School in Minneapolis, where he served as a "policeman" as a ten-year old, shepherding the younger students across the street at a dangerous intersection. After graduating high school at the age of 17, he entered the University of Minnesota, where he graduated in 1925 with a B.S. in chemistry. He continued at the university, receiving an M.S. in chemistry in 1927, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1930. While at university he met his future wife, Olive Lowen, and the two were married on June 19, 1930, shortly after Zeleny completed his doctorate. settling in University Park, Maryland.

Work with bluebirds As a youth growing up in Minnesota, Zeleny became interested in birds, especially Bluebirds. Even before entering high school in the late 1910s, Zeleny was building bluebird nesting boxes, utilizing a design put out by the Department of Agriculture. He furthered his interest in ornithology through a relationship he developed with Professor Thomas S. Roberts while at the University of Minnesota. Roberts had written Water birds of Minnesota in 1919, and would later write the Birds of Minnesota, a two-volume illustrated set documenting the flying fauna of Minnesota. While at the Department of Agriculture, he noticed a decline in the number of bluebirds on the grounds of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, during the 1950s, after the arrival of starlings, non-natives to the area. In 1955 he built his first nesting box on the grounds, right outside his office. In 1968 he authored a booklet on bluebird preservation entitled Bluebirds for Posterity.

Zeleny's concern can be summed up in a letter he wrote to the editor of The Capitol newspaper, in Arlington, Maryland:

By the early 1970s Zeleny was considered to be one of the country's leading experts on bluebirds. In 1971, as president of the Maryland Ornithological Society, he implemented a program in Maryland whereby any homeowner could register their property as a wildlife sanctuary, which would protect native fauna from hunting. In 1976 he published his first book on the plight of the bluebird, The Bluebird: How You Can Help Its Fight for Survival. Dedicated to his wife, Olive, all the proceeds of the book were donated to the North American Bluebird Society. That same year National Geographic credited Zeleny with being the major reason for the turn-around of the bluebird species, which had been on the verge of extinction. He was responsible thousands of miles of bluebird trails in the United States and Canada.

In 1978 he founded, and became the first president of, the North American Bluebird Society (NABS). By 1990 the organization had grown to more than 5000 members. Zeleny's bluebird nesting box design is still used throughout the country. Today, he is still credited with the rebound of the North American bluebird population, as well as being the founding father of the "nest box movement".

Offices held President, Maryland Ornithological Society Board of Directors, Audubon Naturalist Society