Wilbur Zelinsky

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Wilbur Zelinsky (born 1921) is recognized as one of America's most prominent cultural geographers.

He is a professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University. An Illinoisan by birth, but a "northeasterner by choice and conviction," Zelinsky received his education at University of California, Berkeley, where he was a student of Carl Sauer. He received his doctorate in 1953.

Zelinsky has made numerous important geographical studies of American popular culture, ranging from the diffusion of classical place-names to spatial patterns of personal given names and to the spatial patterning of religious denominations. One of his most ambitious and imaginative projects was a provocative assessment of the impact of increasingly powerful personal preference on the spatial character of American society.

In 1973, Zelinsky published his widely acclaimed book, The Cultural Geography of the United States. In addition to his research in popular culture, Zelinsky has made substantial contributions in the fields of "population" and "folk geography".

In 1996, Zelinsky received the Award for Meritorious Contributions to the Field of Geography, presented by the Association of American Geographers. He served as president of the AAG from 1972 to 1973.