Sterling, Keir B(rooks) 1934-
STERLING, Keir B(rooks) 1934-
PERSONAL: Born January 30, 1934, in New York, NY; son of Henry Somers (a professor of geography) and Noel (a civic volunteer; maiden name, de Wetter) Sterling; married Anne Cox Diller (a writer, editor, and community activist), April 3, 1961; children: Duncan Diller, Warner Strong, Theodore Craig. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Attended Spring Arbor Seminary and Junior College (now Spring Arbor University), 1951–52, Seattle Pacific College (now University), 1952–53, and University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, 1953; Columbia University, B.S., 1961, M.A., 1963, professional diploma in higher education administration, 1965, Ph.D., 1973. Politics: Independent Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, travel, hiking, bookbinding, watching college football.
ADDRESSES: Home—7104 Wheeler Rd., Richmond, VA 23229-6939; fax: 804-285-9133. Office—U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command, 3901 A Ave., Room 119, Fort Lee, VA 23801; fax: 804-734-2308. E-mail—keir.sterling@us.army.mil; kbs1934@cs.com.
CAREER: Writer. School of General Studies, Columbia University, New York, NY, assistant to the dean, 1959–65; Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, general counselor to evening students and lecturer, 1967–68; Marymount College, Tarrytown, NY, adjunct instructor in history, assistant academic dean, and chair of American studies program, between 1968 and 1971; Rockland Community College of the State University of New York, Suffern, assistant dean, 1971–74; State Colleges of New Jersey, full-time consultant, 1974–75; Pace University, New York, NY, research professor, 1980; University of Wisconsin—Madison, visiting professor of history of science, 1983; U.S. Army, civilian ordnance branch historian with U.S. Army Ordnance Centers and Schools, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, 1983–98, civilian command historian with U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command, Fort Lee, VA, 1998–. Pace University, adjunct professor, 1966–83; Columbia University, research associate, 1980; Harford Community College, Bel Air, MD, adjunct professor, 1987–94; also taught at Union Graduate School, Cincinnati, OH, Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY, Nyack College, Kings College, Briarcliff Manor, NY, and Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY. Rhinebeck Historic District Committee, member, 1981–83; Harford County Committee, Maryland Historical Trust, 1986–94; Harford County Historical District Committee, vice president, 1987–94. Military service: U.S. Army, personnel management specialist, 1954–56.
MEMBER: International Union of Biological Sciences (historian and archivist for Section on Mammalogy, 1985–), American Society of Mammalogists, American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, American Society for Environmental History (member of governing board, 1977–84), Society for the History of Natural History, Society for the Bibliography of History (member of council, 1998–2000), Rhinebeck Historical Society (member of board of trustees and president, 1980–82), University of Richmond Friends of Boatwright Library.
AWARDS, HONORS: Grants from Theodore Roosevelt Fund, American Museum of Natural History, 1967, American Ornithologists Union, 1976 and 1977, National Geographic Society, 1977, and National Science Foundation, 1980; citations for "outstanding reference source," American Library Association, and "best reference book," Library Journal, both 1997, for Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists; grants from International Research and Exchanges Board and American Society of Mammalogists.
WRITINGS:
Last of the Naturalists: The Career of C. Hart Merriam, Arno Press (New York, NY), 1974, revised edition, 1977.
(General editor) An International History of Mammalogy, One World Press (Bel Air, MD), Volume 1, 1987, Volumes 2-3, in press.
Serving the Line with Excellence: The Development of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps as Expressed through the Lives of Its Chiefs of Ordnance, 1775–1992, revised edition, U.S. Government Printing Office (Washington, DC), 1992.
(Senior editor and contributor, with R. P. Harmond, G. A. Cevasco, and L. F. Hammond) Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1997.
Editor and author of introduction for twenty-four volumes in the series "Natural Sciences in America" and "Biologists and Their World," both Arno Press. Contributor to books, including Latin American Mammalogy: History, Biodiversity, and Conservation, edited by M. A. Mares and D. J. Schmidly, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1991; Seventy-Five Years of Mammalogy, 1919–1994, edited by E. C. Birney and J. R. Choate, American Society of Mammalogists (Provo, UT), 1994; Science and Society through Time, edited by Neil Schlager, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998–2001; The U.S. Army and World War II: Selected Papers from the Army's Commemorative Conferences, edited by J. Bellafaire, Center of Military History (Washington, DC), 1999; Absolutism and the Scientific Revolution, 1600–1720, edited by Christopher Baker, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2002; Encyclopedia of World Environmental History, 3rd edition, edited by Shepard Krech, III, J. R. McNeill, and Carolyn Merchant, Routledge (New York, NY), 2003; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Colin Matthew, H. C. G. Mathews, and B. H. Harrison, Oxford University Press (London, England), 2004; and Science in Uniform and Uniforms in Science, edited by Bart Hacker, Scarecrow Press (Lanham, MD), in press. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Journal of Forest History, Choice, Archives of Natural History, Environmental Review, Isis, Journal of Forest and Conservation History, Ordnance, Torch, and Army History. Newsletter editor, American Society for Environmental History, 1978–84.
WORK IN PROGRESS: 125th Anniversary History of the American Ornithologists Union, 1883–2008 (tentative title), with W. E. Davis, J. Jackson, and M. G. Ainley, and W. J. Bock; U.S. Army Ordnance: The First Century, 1812–1912.
SIDELIGHTS: Keir B. Sterling once told CA: "My primary motivation for writing has always grown out of fascination with the subject matter. I devoured books of all kinds from childhood. History has intrigued me for as long as I can remember, and my interest in military history began during World War II, when I was a school boy in Washington, DC. Animals became a major interest in junior high school, after I began reading some of the many books written by the naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton. Sympathetic professors and librarians at the University of Wisconsin—Madison (where my father was a faculty member) stimulated and encouraged my interests in wildlife while I was still in high school. They made it possible for me to participate in field trips and other activities which were primarily designed for their graduate students. For a time, I collected animal specimens, kept elaborate notes, and published my first brief observations in a scientific journal at the age of eighteen. When it came time to write my doctoral dissertation at Columbia University, however, it seemed logical to combine my interests in history and zoology by writing a scientific biography of an American zoologist. Later, after some revision, this effort became a book.
"My writing methods are not particularly unusual. I begin a project as so many others have done—by reading widely and taking notes. After writing segments of an article or longer project, I make revisions, then continue writing new material. Once my sons introduced me to the personal computer, drafting and redrafting became infinitely easier. Often, projects may sit for a time, while I consider possible changes. I often prefer to approach my subject areas from the standpoint of individuals who have notably stretched the parameters of their disciplines."