This week I was saddened to learn that Dr. Anthony Bledsoe passed away on Saturday 14 September 2019. His infectious enthusiasm for birds and behind the scenes advocacy will be sorely missed.

Tony Bledsoe was an instructor and lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh for 31 years and such an inspiring teacher that his students rated him “One of the best professors I’ve ever had.” In 2006 he won the Tina and David Bellet Teaching Excellence Award as Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher in Arts and Sciences at the University, voted by the students themselves.

Tony was a friend and a behind-the-scenes advocate for birds at the University of Pittsburgh. I first met him in 2001 when he offered to help me establish a peregrine nestbox at the Cathedral of Learning. Tony read my PABIRDS report about peregrines in courtship flight and knew there was no suitable location for them to nest. I wanted to install a nestbox but had no idea how to approach the University. Tony knew who to call. He worked behind the scenes to find people to champion the peregrines within the Administration. By February 2002, with Tony’s help, the nestbox was in place. Dorothy and Erie raised their first chicks that spring.

Tony provided scientific background on peregrine behavior within the University and beyond. In March 2007, when Erie killed an intruder peregrine at the nestbox, he was interviewed by John Tierney of the New York Times for an article about the peregrine fight: Peregrine Smackdown: Stay Away From My Dorothy!

Last fall, as a member of the Board of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania (ASWP), he worked behind the scenes to save migratory birds at the University of Pittsburgh. When he read my blog about the deadly attraction of Pitt’s Victory Lights, he called ASWP’s Executive Director Jim Bonner to urge this as a Board concern. Jim made connections so quickly that by that evening the University of Pittsburgh and ASWP were working together on the solution. (See Hooray! Good News For Birds!) This rapid response would not have been possible without Tony’s phone call.

Tony’s enthusiasm for science and for birds inspired those who knew him. The video below, probably from 2006, shows how committed he was to education and how he inspired students in every class.

Tony’s infectious enthusiasm will be sorely missed.

For more information, see his obituary here.