Leslie Glasgow

Leslie Lloyd Glasgow (March 29, 1914 – August 3, 1980) was a Louisiana State University professor and advocate of conservation of natural resources who was director of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission from 1966 to 1968 during the administration of Governor John McKeithen and then from 1969 to 1970 the assistant U.S. Secretary of the Interior under Walter Hickel, with duties over Fish, Wildlife, Parks, and Marine Resources, in the first half of the first term of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.

Background

A native of Portland in Jay County in eastern Indiana, Glasgow was one of seven children of James and Margaret Glasgow. In 1942, he married the former Garnet Confer (1916-2003), and the couple had three sons, Vaughn, Hugh, and Robert. Glasgow served in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in 1943 from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and his Master of Science in 1948 from the University of Maine at Orono, Maine.^[1]

Glasgow worked as a waterfowl biologist for the state of Indiana until he joined the LSU faculty in 1948. In 1958, having taken leave for two semesters from LSU, he received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University at College Station, Texas. His dissertation is a study of the woodcock, the research of which he conducted at the LSU Agricultural Experiment Station. Glasgow was known for his research on the ecology of the Louisiana marshes and related wildlife. He was promoted to full professor at LSU in 1964.^[1]

Career

As director of Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, now the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Glasgow succeeded the original McKeithen administration appointee, Clark Milliken Hoffpauir (1930-2004) of Crowley in Acadia Parish. Glasgow expressed a desire to separate natural resources policies from partisanship, but he left the McKeithen administration after just over two years because of renewed political infighting. Outdoor enthusiasts in Louisiana, such as fisherman, hunters, trappers, campers, hikers, and birdwatchers, viewed him as their champion. He served on twenty advisory board and commissions, including the Boy Scouts of America.^[1]

As assistant secretary of the interior in the Nixon administration, Glasgow had been recommended to Secretary Walter Hickel by David C. Treen, who had just lost his third campaign to unseat Hale Boggs in Louisiana's 2nd congressional district. Treen was later the first Republican U.S. Representative, from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district, and governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction. In that role, Glasgow stressed that land-holding companies must conserve natural resources.^[1]

Coincidentally as assistant secretary, Glasgow hired young Robert J. Barham of Morehouse Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who has been since 2008 the director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, to work at Glacier National Park in northernmost Montana. In an interview published in 2008 in The Monroe News-Star, Barham said that his youthful experience at Glacier park was "amazing. I was mentored by people like my dad [Erle McKoin Barham] and Glasgow, who knew the importance of our natural resources." Louisiana has 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km²) of wildlife management areas.^[2]

When he returned to LSU for his final decade in 1971, Glasgow assumed the title of Assistant Director for Wildlife and Fisheries. He served as major professor for 44 graduate students and sat on the committees of 159 graduate students. He was affiliated with seven professional organizations and a member of four honorary societies. He taught eight wildlife courses and authored thirty-two scientific papers. On June 30, 1980, he retired from LSU. A retirement celebration was held on July 16.^[1]

Glasgow died eighteen days later on August 3 at the age of sixty-six while he was in San Jose, California, visiting relatives and attending a board meeting of Williams, Inc., a large landowner in south Louisiana of which he had been named company vice-president.^[1]Glasgow and his wife are interred at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge.^[3]

In 2008, Glasgow was posthumously inducted into the LSU Hall of Fame.^[1]

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