In Memoriam

Bernard W. Corson '47, '49G
Wild turkeys and clean rivers are among his legacies

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When Bernard "Buck" Corson '47, '49G was sworn in as director of the N.H. Department of Fish and Game in 1968, he promised to protect the state's wildlife and fisheries. "It was, by oath, his responsibility, and he took it extremely seriously," says his son Clark Corson '67.

Buck Corson battled the utility company PSNH over its coal-fired plant in Bow, Clark says, "because it was discharging super-heated water into the Merrimack, which was killing shad, a main staple for Atlantic salmon." Corson opposed the oil refinery that Aristotle Onassis wanted to build on the Seacoast, which had the support of then-Gov. Meldrim Thomson. "He worked tirelessly for clean air and clean water, and he butted heads with certain politicians, and he won in the end," Craig Corson says of his father.

Corson grew up on a small farm in Rochester, N.H. He enrolled at Keene State College but left to become a Navy fighter pilot in World War II. Just before he was shipped to the Pacific, he married his high school sweetheart, Martha Varney Clark, in Savannah, Ga. Corson returned from the war a decorated veteran and enrolled at UNH, where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's in zoology.

After graduation, he was hired as the lead fisheries biologist at Fish and Game, later becoming the chief of the fisheries division. In 1964, the U.S. Department of the Interior appointed him to eradicate lamprey eels from the Great Lakes. Ichthyology (the study of fish) would remain a lifelong passion. "If he walked into a room of four marine biologists, you'd need a logging truck and chain to drag him out," Craig says. Corson retired from the fish and game department in 1978.

Buck and Martha raised their two sons in Contoocook, N.H. Corson taught his wife and sons how to fly fish, and the family skied and hiked together. He was an avid UNH football fan and a member of the Alumni Association board from 1988-91. He and Martha established a scholarship fund in honor of her sister, Janet Clark '42.

"He was unassuming, very gracious, very much a gentleman. He never had a bad thing to say about anyone," Clark Corson says. "He was extremely humble."

Corson developed the state's first hunter education program, launched the New Hampshire Wildlife Journal, led the restoration of Atlantic salmon to the Merrimack River and employed helicopters to stock remote trout ponds.

When Corson wanted to reintroduce the wild turkey to New Hampshire, he came up with an innovative plan. "[Gov.] Thomson said, 'You're not going to spend money for turkeys,'" recalls Clark, "and my father said, 'No, we'll trade for them.'" West Virginia wanted predators to control its porcupine population, so Corson swapped 50 live-trapped New Hampshire fishers for 50 West Virginia wild turkeys. The turkeys were released in Pawtuckaway State Park, but the next winter was severe and they died. Corson tried again, the next time releasing the birds in the Connecticut River valley. The state's wild turkey population has boomed ever since. In 2011, New Hampshire declared May 3, the first day of turkey hunting season, "Buck Corson Day."

After a fall, Corson died on June 7 at the age of 91. A connection with nature was a spiritual matter to him. He loved his Contoocook backyard and the North Country in equal measure. In his later years, he wrote in an essay, "Truths are found in the silence of wilderness. ... These are all places that relax us, help us feel centered, make us live in the moment and feed our souls."


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