History of Gladys Black

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Gladys Bowery Black grew to love birds at an early age. Her mother, Jerusha Bowery, knew all the birds around their home near the Red Rock bluffs in Marion County. As Dean Roosa, Iowa's former State Ecologist, stated in the foreward to Black's book Iowa Birdlife, Gladys could already identify about 25 species near their home by age seven.

A graduate of Pleasantville High School, Black received her nursing degree from Mercy Hospital in Des Moines in 1930 and later a bachelor of science degree in public health nursing from the University of Minnesota. She worked as a public health nurse in Clarke County, Iowa, until she met Wayne Black.

They were married and moved to Georgia, where Black's husband worked at Warner Robins Air Force Base. There, Black continued her public health career and became involved with community affairs at Warner Robins. She was named the community's "Woman of the Year" in 1953 for all her civic volunteer work. Meanwhile, Black began working with Dr. David Johnson of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, who helped her establish a bird-banding program and became a sort of mentor.

Working for Iowa's birds
After her husband's death in 1956, Black returned to Pleasantville to care for her mother. Immediately upon her return, she became active in the Iowa Ornithologists' Union and began a collection of data at Red Rock. For the next 35 years, notes Roosa, Black worked every day--except for five days when she was in the hospital--to observe birds and compile data for checklists of species found in the Red Rock area.

"Gladys Black's life wasn't exactly on Easy Street," reflects Marlene Ehresman, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation's program and planning associate, who came to know Black through the fields of environmental education and bird rehabilitation. "As a trained nurse and self-taught birder/ornithologist, Gladys garnered the respect of many simply due to her tenacity."

Black's bird publications
A 1969 letter to The Des Moines Register led Black to write a column about birds and birding in Iowa for the newspaper. For the next 18 years, Black brought birding to the living rooms of Central Iowans through her columns in the Register. Even after she stopped writing columns for The Des Moines Register, her writing continued to appear in weekly newspapers in Pleasantville, Knoxville and Pella for years.

According to a Des Moines Register editorial published shortly after Black's death, "Students read her to improve their knowledge of outdoor lore, birdwatchers read her to learn where the eagles soared, legislators pushing a dove-hunting law read her to learn how much opposition to expect. (Plenty.)"

The Nature Conservancy published a collection of these articles in a 1979 book called Birds of Iowa. Inspired by popular demand and Black's growing collection of essays, The Nature Conservancy worked with the University of Iowa Press to publish a larger collection of her essays in the 1992 book Iowa Birdlife. That book is still available for purchase through University of Iowa Press.

Other honors
Although strictly an amateur birder, in 1978 Black was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Simpson College for her studies of migration patterns and nesting of American birds. That same year, she received a certificate of appreciation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for her conservation and education efforts around Lake Red Rock. In 1983, Black was elected Fellow of the Iowa Academy of Science. She was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1985 for her work as an environmental educator and was recognized by the Iowa governor for 35 years of volunteer work in 1989.

"One thing about Gladys: She was absolutely dedicated, absolutely adamant, absolutely wonderful. She was an absolute woman in a male-dominated era," says Marlene Ehresman.

Black died peacefully in her home on July 19, 1998 at the age of 89. In July 2004, INHF and other partners dedicated the Gladys Black Bald Eagle Refuge, located at a Marion County site where Gladys had done birding.

back to Gladys Black intro
What Gladys Black did for birds
Gladys Black's Eagle Refuge
Article by Gladys Black about Bald Eagles
Photo Essay on Eagles at Gladys Black's Eagle Refuge
Bald Eagle Days at Lake Red Rock


For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.