Jay Norwood Ding Darling: A Famous Cartoonist
Jay Norwood Darling was born in Norwood Michigan, in 1876. He spent much of his youth in Sioux City, Iowa, when that Missouri River town was a gateway to unspoiled prairies. He attended college in Wisconsin and South Dakota. .
An affable, dynamic, and talented man, Darling began his cartooning career in 1900 with the Sioux City Journal and retired fifty years later. After joining the Des Moines Register as a cartoonist in 1906, he began signing his cartoons with the nickname Ding - derived by combining the first initial of his last name with the last three letters.
Winner of Pulitzer Prizes
Conservation and politics were Darling s abiding passions. Concerned with pollution and extinction of wildlife, he worked these themes into his cartoons. An avid hunter and fisherman himself, Darling used his cartoons to emphasize that regulations governing these sports should observed. As a conservationist, he believed that people can benefit from nature without damaging it.
Mr. Darling Goes to Washington
In July 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Darling to head the U.S. Biological Survey, the forerunner of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. In this capacity, Darling battled for greater national attention and expenditures for conservation. Darling was responsible for securing some $17 million for wildlife habitat restoration. He established the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission and made great strides toward bringing hunter and conservationist together. He also pioneered leadership in the field of proper game management.
J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge
For many years, Darling had a winter home in Florida on Captiva Island. Through the efforts of his island neighbors and the J.N. Ding Darling Foundation, a refuge was created on Sanibel Island from land donated by concerned citizens and land acquired by the federal government. Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Sanibel National Wildlife Refuge has protected habitat for wildlife since 1945. It was renamed in Jay Norwood Darling s honor and officially dedicated to him in 1978.
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