Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work

Epilogue

Epilogue ADO LEOPOLD'S odyssey ended where it began, in the limestone bluffs above the Mississippi River at Burlington, Iowa. He was buried in the Starker-Leopold family plot at Aspen Grove Cemetery , on a small knoll between two white pines and two white oaks. The funeral was held with little ceremony. Leopold's grave was marked with a simple stone. Out of respect for Estella's religious beliefs, his body was not cremated, as others in the family had been, but interred in the grounds that his grandfather Starker had planned, beneath the trees that Starker himself might well have planted. Two of the children, Starker and Carl, were able to travel to Burlington . Luna and Carolyn in Hawaii, and Nina and Bill Elder in Missouri, were expecting at any moment the arrival of new babies (Carl and Keena were also about to become parents; within days, the family would gain three grandchildren). Young Estella stayed in Madison. The moments at the cemetery were difficult. Estella was emotionally spent, but pulled through the worst times with the help of her close friends and family. The same was not true of Clara Leopold. She was eighty-eight and already infirm. Everyone present noticed the debility that overcame her with the news of Aldo's death. After that, she seemed to lose the will to live. She never did regain her characteristic verve, and died a few weeks later. The mourners dispersed to carryon. Estella went to Missouri to stay with Nina and Bill through the birth of their child. When Ninita arrived, Estella was able to channel her sorrow into care. Her grief would pass very slowly, but for the immediate interval, a new grandchild was the best thing that could have come along. As word of Leopold's death fanned out across the continent, those who had worked with him over the years were shocked into the realization that they had known a remarkable man. They knew it while he was alive, of course, but Leopold had exerted his influence in the conservation move52 ! Epilogue ment so skillfully that many had taken his guiding presence for granted. Consolatory letters and telegrams poured in to Madison. Ward Shepard wrote from Virginia, "I feel sure that Aldo was just reaching the height of his powers and his wisdom, at the peak of his rich and creative life, so that the blow comes doubly hard for all of us who loved and admired him."! "The cause of conservation has lost its best friend," Harry Russell wrote. "No one had the charm of expression and the depth of feeling to equal his."2 Charles Bradley, a close family friend, wrote that "the things which Aldo gave to us are as deathless as the Human Race."3 Dozens upon dozens of letters repeated the sentiments. Beneath the expressions of grief, there ran an undertone of gratitude for having been fortunate enough to know Leopold, to work, go afield, and share a conversation with him. Norman Fassett wrote, "I know that my spirit has been strengthened and I have been made more nearly the man I would like to be by years of association with Aldo Leopold. In spite of the grief and sense of loss so many of us feel, there is that, which cannot be taken from me."4 Leopold's students felt a special sense of loss. For wildlife researchers, the first full days of spring were always busy with field work, so the news reached many of them only gradually. Bob McCabe, Fred Greeley, and the Hamerstroms were observing the spring courtship of the prairie chickens on Clyde Terrell's farm in Waushara County. McCabe did not learn of Leopold 's death until he came into the office and one of the graduate students told him. Thinking it to be a bad joke, McCabe chastised the student. The weight fell only after Bob looked around at the others in the room.5 McCabe passed the word along to the Hamerstroms, who decided not to attend the funeral. The Professor, they reasoned, would have wanted them to continue with the field work. Dan Thompson heard the news over his car radio, driving home from a wolf study trip in northern Wisconsin. He and his partner, dumfounded, drove on in silence. Thompson's thoughts returned to the previous night, when he was awakened by the distant whistle of a locomotive pulling out of Ashland. In response to the train, a wolf lifted its...