Memorial Statement from Cornell for Professor Peter Paul Kellogg (December 13, 1899 — January 31, 1975)
"Peter Paul Kellogg, professor emeritus of ornithology and bioacoustics, died of cancer in Houston, Texas, on January 31, 1975. Born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, he moved to Rochester, New York, at the age of four. When he was fourteen, he left school and worked, successively, in a shoe factory, as a Western Union messenger, and as a meat-market clerk. At the age of twenty-two he returned to high school to prepare for college, supporting himself during this period with a full-time job in a coal-gas plant at night. He entered Cornell in 1925 and received his B.S. degree in 1929, at the age of thirty. He promptly enrolled as a graduate student in ornithology under Arthur A. Allen, and received his Ph.D. degree in 1938. Having held the position of instructor in ornithology during his graduate years, he was appointed an assistant professor as soon as he completed his doctorate in 1938. He was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 1946, and was named a full professor in 1953. He officially retired from Cornell with emeritus status in 1966, though in recent years he taught ornithology courses in Cornell’s summer Alumni University.
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Through the joint efforts of Professors Allen and Kellogg, Cornell became known as one of the principal centers for ornithological education and research in the United States. These two men were especially concerned with the importance of disseminating ornithological knowledge to the interested public at a time when the great stress on conservation education that we know today did not yet exist. This interest of theirs led in 1955 to the establishment of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, with Professors Allen and Kellogg officially recognized as co-founders. A new building for the laboratory was erected and a sanctuary established in the Sapsucker Woods area, a few miles northeast of the main campus. The facility was dedicated in 1957. Dr. Kellogg became a life member of the Administrative Board of the Laboratory of Ornithology, and he also served until his retirement as assistant director of the laboratory.
One of Dr. Kellogg’s principal activities in the laboratory was the establishment of the Library of Natural Sounds, which today includes recordings of songs or calls of about one-quarter of the world’s species of birds, as well as recordings of amphibians and other animals. This facility is used not only by Cornell students and faculty but also by investigators at many other institutions.
For nearly thirty years Dr. Kellogg’s voice was familiar to radio listeners throughout the Finger Lakes Region through his production of the weekly program “Know Your Birds” on WHCU. This program will celebrate its fortieth anniversary in the fall of 1975. It is the longest continuously running radio program in the United States. The interest in ornithology and in conservation that it will surely continue to generate will serve as a memorial to Dr. Kellogg’s many contributions to the study of birds."