The Leonard collection consists of thirteen linear feet of materials, most of which is correspondence, both personal and professional. There are also biographical and genealogical information, clippings, speeches, research notes, photographs, printed materials, and miscellaneous writings. The collection has been arranged into the following series: World War II service; Professional Correspondence; Topical Information; Topical files; Organizational/People file; and Photographs.
Besides being a University of Michigan professor of zoology and natural resources, Dr. Justin W. Leonard was also an internationally recognized aquatic entomologist, conservationist, and ecologist.
Born on October 28, 1909 in Moulton Iowa, Leonard was the son of Ira Jay Leonard and Edna Wilkinson Leonard. His father, a field botanist all his life, taught school until he reached his mid-thirties, when he turned to farming. He and his wife remained on the farm in Moulton until they died.
Justin Leonard received his AB degree in 1931 from Grinnell College, Iowa, where he majored in zoology and chemistry. He continued his studies of zoology at the University of Michigan, where he obtained his AM degree in 1932 and Ph.D. in 1937. From 1932-34 he worked for the University of Michigan as a museums aide, lecturer, and Hinsdale Scholar. In 1936, Leonard married Fannie A. Divelbess.
In 1934, Leonard went to work as a research biologist for the Michigan Department of Conservation at the Institute for Fisheries Research in Ann Arbor. From 1939-43 he was the director of the Hunt Creek Experiment Station near Lewiston. However, World War II interrupted his career. He joined the Army, where he served as a medical entomologist, and over the course of the war moved from First Lieutenant to Major. In 1943, he was the Post Entomologist at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He went on to be the Commanding Officer of the 446 Medical Comp. Unit, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, from 1944-1945, and from 1945-1946 he was the Island Malaria Control Officer.
After the war, he returned to work at the Institute for Fisheries Research. In 1951, Leonard was promoted and he went to work at the Michigan Department of Conservation headquarters in Lansing as Chief of Research and Development.
In 1964, Leonard's career took a new course when he accepted a position on the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources faculty. From that date until his death in 1975, he was a professor of zoology and natural resources and a research associate for the Museum of Zoology. In 1964-65 he was Acting Chairman of the School of Natural Resources Department of Fisheries and when that department merged with the Wildlife Department in 1965, he became Chairman of the joint Department of Wildlife and Fisheries until 1967. At that time he became Chairman of the Department of Resource Planning and Conservation, a position he held until his death. His major professional and research interests were in integrated management of natural resources, fishery biology, and aquatic and medical entomology.
Leonard participated in many professional societies during his lifetime. Listed alphabetically they are as follows: The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Fisheries Society, the American Institute of Biological Societies, the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists, the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (of which he was vice-president in 1951), the Ecological Society of America, the Entomological Society of America, the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters (of which he was president in 1962), the Michigan Natural Resources Council (of which he was chairman in 1958-59), Phi Sigma and Sigma Xi (both honorary scientific societies), the Society of Systematic Zoology, the Soil Conservation Society of America (for which he served on the outdoor Recreation Committee from 1963 until he died), and The Wildlife Society (of which he was president in 1956 and served on the Leopold Award Committee in 1967).
Other appointments and honors are as follows: the Alumni Achievement Award of Grinnell College in 1961 with Fannie, the Board of Directors of the Michigan Rehabilitation Corporation from 1957-60, the Governor's Committee on the Control of Botulism from 1963-64, Governor's Designee of the McIntyre-Stennis Fund from 1962-64, Lecturer for the Department of Forestry at Michigan State University from 1957-64, the National Academy of Science (NAS) committee on Biology and Renewable Resources in 1966, the NAS/NRC Committee on the Control of the Imported Fire Ant in 1967, a member of the study team to evaluate the proposed Rampart Canyon Dam Project on the Yukon River in Alaska in 1964, Special Consultant to the U.S. Public Health Service from 1956-1966, Wallace Memorial Lecturer at the University of Louisville in 1956, and Visiting Professor in Japan in 1969 speaking on management of natural resources. He was also selected for inclusion in Leaders in American Conservation.
Alone or with a colleague Leonard authored more than seventy bulletins and journal articles (more than fifty with his wife Fannie), some technical and some for the layman, and a number of books: Mayflies of Michigan Trout Streams with Fannie, Conserving Natural Resources with S.W. Allen, and The Rampart Dam and Economic Development of Alaska with Dr. Stephen Spurr.
