Book Description

Described in 1986 as "a living legend," Glenn Hoffman was one of the world's foremost authorities on the parasites of fishes. This books narrates his life and 65-year professional career as a scientist, researcher, ambassador, colleague, and family man. Born in 1918 to "hard working Iowa farm folks," Dr. Hoffman grew up trapping and fishing for fun and profit. At the University of Iowa, he majored in zoology and worked for the Iowa State Conservation Department. From 1942 through 1946, he served in the U.S. Army as a lab technician, bacteriologist, and parasitologist in France, England, Germany, and Belgium. He returned to Iowa to earn his PhD in 1950, and taught at the University of North Dakota 19501957. From 1958 to 1975 he worked at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services Eastern Fish Disease Laboratory in Leestown, WV, and then at the U.S. Fish Culture Station in Stuttgart, Arkansas, until his retirement in 1985. He was the author of four major books and more than 100 articles on the causes, spread, and cures of parasite-related diseases in fish, including Parasites of North American Freshwater Fishes (1967, 2nd ed. 1999), called "the bible of American fish parasitology." His work and his generosity in collaboration developed an international following, and he made many trips abroad to share his expertise and receive the honors earned from his wide-ranging research and publication work. Personal, insightful, and reflective, this autobiography gives a glimpse inside the mind of a American scientist of the first rank.