Harold F. Mayfield

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Harold Ford Mayfield (25 March 1911 – 27 January 2007) was an American business executive and amateur ornithologist who made a major study of Kirtland's warbler and worked for the preservation of their breeding areas. During his study of the warbler, he introduced a standardized measure of nesting success based on his professional experience in industry and from his training in mathematics. This method now widely known as the Mayfield Method involves probability calculations that take into account nests that the observer was unable to locate. Prior to his work, ornithologists used naïve approaches based on fractions of number of successful young or nests from a total of nests that they had found.

Life and work

Harold was born as James Blegen to John Blegen and Ida Thorberg before they were married. Due to the social stigma of the time he was given away for adoption and raised by Frank and Mae Ford Mayfield in Iowa. He grew up in

University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He then worked as a teacher at Alton and then moved to work at the Owens-Illinois Company. He then became a director of personnel at Toledo publishing in business and management journals. He served as an advisor to the Kennedy and Johnson administrations as a member of the council on economic opportunity and won a distinguished service award in 1965 from the American Association of Industrial Management.[1]

When Mayfield was 28, he was incapacitated by a stroke and resolved to study birds during the recovery. With help from

American Ornithologists’ Union, Cooper Ornithological Society, as well as the Wilson Ornithological Society.[8]

Personal life

Mayfield married Virginia Duval and they had four children. When Mayfield was aged 70 he discovered that his biological mother was still alive. After writing to her he was invited to Minnesota where they met. He also met his four siblings who had been born after their parents' marriage and had been unaware of his existence.[1]

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 25150407
    .
  2. JSTOR 4159170
    .
  3. JSTOR 4082521
    .
  4. ^ Rapai, William (2012). The Kirtland's Warbler: The Story of a Bird's Fight Against Extinction and the People Who Saved It. University of Michigan Press. pp. 48–49.
  5. ^ Hensler, G.L.; Nichols, J.D. (1981). "The Mayfield method of estimating nesting success: a model, estimators and simulation results" (PDF). Wilson Bulletin. 93 (l): 42–53.
  6. ^ Mayfield, Harold (1961). "Nesting Success Calculated From Exposure" (PDF). Wilson Bulletin. 73 (3): 255–261.
  7. ^ Mayfield, Harold F. (1975). "Suggestions for calculating nest success" (PDF). Wilson Bulletin. 87 (4): 456–466.
  8. ^ a b Johnson, Douglas H. "Methods of estimating nest success: an historical tour" (PDF). Studies in Avian Biology. 34: 1–12.
  9. doi:10.1093/auk/96.1.168
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harold_F._Mayfield&oldid=1219901479"