Thomas A. Roberts

June 6, 1947 – Nov. 24, 2017

Born and raised in Boston, Tom graduated from Harvard University and then joined the U.S. Army where he served as an intelligence analyst translating Arabic documents. Feeling a deepening dissatisfaction with the course of his professional life, he turned to conservation and natural resources management. Tom earned a Master’s of Science in Wildlife Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

During his distinguished career as a wildlife biologist in California, he served over ten years as a biologist, land manager, and planner for the U.S. Forest Service in Southern California and the Sierra. He took a year to develop Bedouin sheep grazing regimes in the Kingdom of Jordan before moving back to Santa Cruz in the early 1990’s to work at BioSystems, Inc. Tom capped his professional career as Environmental Science Associates’ biological resources director in the Bay Area from 1994 until his retirement in 2012. Tom was a dedicated member of the Wildlife Society. He served on the Executive Board for the Western Section of The Wildlife Society TWS and was a mentor to many early carrier wildlife professionals. A Certified Wildlife Biologist with TWS since 1984 Tom maintained the highest personal and professional standards.