Frances Hamerstrom - Biography

Biography

Born in 1907 in Boston, Massachusetts, Frances Flint grew up in a wealthy family, and attended Milton Academy. As a child Hamerstrom developed a fascination with the natural world. Despite her father's complaint that such behavior was "unladylike", she kept wild pets and learned to hunt. To keep her family from uncovering evidence of her wildlife adventures, she planted poison ivy along the path that led to where she kept her wilderness gear. (Hamerstrom was naturally immune to its effects). She married Frederick Hamerstrom in 1931 in secret. The Hamerstroms kept their marriage secret from their parents and were later re-married in a ceremony in Massachusetts.

Hamerstrom and her husband wished to work with wildlife at a time when the modern wildlife management and research profession was in its infancy. After meeting wildlife conservationist and ecologist Aldo Leopold, the Hamerstroms went to Iowa State University to study under Paul Errington, where Frederick earned a Master's degree and Fran a Bachelor's degree, working on the topic of predation, the food habits of the great horned owl. They then moved to Wisconsin to work at a wildlife refuge and to attend graduate school under Aldo Leopold, the father of game management. Frederick Hamerstrom was one of only three men awarded a doctorate under Leopold and Frances was the only woman graduate student under Leopold to earn a master's degree. Leopold started the Hamerstroms on a study of the imperiled greater prairie chicken, an endangered species in Wisconsin.