Thomas Atkeson (1912 –1999)

If something happened to you or me, the hawks and the owls and the eagles and swans couldn’t care less.  But to me there is no more ennobling aspect of the human character than that we can care about what happens, not only to our own kind but to them.  We are all, human and bird and animal, part of the same skein of life.  Thomas Z. Atkeson, in The Gadsden Times, June 24, 1987

Thomas Akteson is best remembered as a biologist and manager of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alabama, positions he fulfilled with courage and determination for 44 years.  Atkeson grew up on a farm in Alabama during the Depression, becoming an avid reader, outdoorsman, and naturalist.  He earned a forestry degree from the University of Georgia and left the graduate program at Auburn University in 1939 to become a biologist at the newly created Wheeler Refuge.  Wheeler Refuge was created on the shores of the Wheeler Reservoir on the recently dammed Tennessee River.  His first tasks included mapping the entire refuge and overseeing reforestation efforts across the degraded refuge landscape.  

During World War II, Atkeson joined the U.S. Army and, while training in Texas, was wounded by an exploding mine, permanently blinding him and resulting in the loss of his hands.  Undaunted, he persevered, convinced that his life was preserved for a special purpose.  After extensive rehabilitation, he was bold enough to ask to return to his former refuge position and was reinstated in 1946.  Employing his keen intellect, extensive academic training, and the vivid memories of having walked the entire refuge, Atkeson served as the Refuge’s biologist for sixteen years and was promoted to refuge manager in 1962–a position he held until his retirement in 1987.  His love for Wheeler Refuge was boundless and, under his leadership, Wheeler became an important stop for waterfowl and other migratory birds on the Mississippi Flyway.

Atkeson was at the forefront in demonstrating how massive impoundments created for multiple human uses could also play an important role in wildlife conservation.  Atkeson pioneered management of dewatered shoreline habitats and cooperative farming to produce forage crops for wintering waterfowl.  Out of his concern for ecosystem health and overall biodiversity, he advocated for prohibitions on the use of lead shot and DDT.  He was especially proud of his role in the closure of the DDT plant in Triana, Alabama in 1970 after over two decades of its contamination of a creek feeding into Wheeler Reservoir.  Atkeson served as a one-man public relations department for Wheeler Refuge, writing widely for newspapers, magazines, and professional publications, and received numerous local, state and national awards during his long career.  While some might see his legacy as overcoming his injuries to contribute to conservation, Atkeson’s lasting legacy lay in the rich forests and other diverse habitats and wildlife populations thriving at Wheeler Refuge today.

Image Credit: Illustrations courtesy of artist Sal Catalano.

Credit: This plaque was created by SUTL Cohort 28.