Ira N. Gabrielson

Dr. Ira N. Gabrielson an "internationally known authority on conservation" died in 1977. Hospital.

"He was the first director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after serving as a chief of the old Bureau of Biological Survey of the Agriculture Department. He was former president, and at the time of his death, board chairman of the Wildlife Management Institute.

"He was a founder and former chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.

"Referred to by many as "Mr. Conservation" and known by his colleagues as "Dr. Gabe," he was chosen in 1975 by the American Forestry Association to be one of a select group for the National Hall of Conservation, which includes Rachel Carson, President Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold...

"For 20 years, he supervised a wide range of wildlife management and research programs, mainly in the West, before coming to Washington in 1935 as chief of the bureau's division of woldlife research.

"When Biological Survey and the Bureau of Fisheries were consolidated into the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1940, Dr. Gabrielson was made director, a position he held until 1946.

"During that period he was deputy coordinator of fisheries and a U.S. delegate to the International Whaling Conference. He was responsible for adding millions of acres to the National Wildlife Refuge System.

"He retired from the federal government in 1946 to become president of the Wildlife Management Institute, serving in that capacity until 1970, when he became chairman of the board.

"Dr. Gabrielson helped found the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1948. He helped organize the World Wildlife Fund (United States) in 1961, and was its president for many years. He was a trustee of the World Wildlife Fund (International) and of the North American Wildlife Foundation.

"While he was deeply involved in conservation on a national and worldwide basis, Dr. Gabrielson, who lived in Northern Virginia, also found time to take a leading role in local conservation matters.

"Her served as chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority from 1959 to 1976, and had been chairman emeritus since then...

"He was a member of the Society of Systematic Zoology, the American Ornithologists Union, the Ecology Society of America, the Audubon Society, the Izaak Walton League, the Washington Academy of Sciences and the Cosmos Club.

"He is survived by his wife, Clara Speer Gabrielson, of the home in Oakton; a daughter, Jean Holmes, of LaFeria, Tex.; a brother, Rush Gabrielson, of Crystal Lake, Iowa, and seven grandchildren. Three daughters preceded him in death."

• Recipient of the 1949 Audubon Medal
• Founding President, WWF