J. Gordon Edwards (1919-2004) was an entomologist, mountain climber, author, and park ranger. Edwards was professor, and later emeritus professor of Biology, San Jose State University. He died on July 19 of a heart attack while hiking up Divide Mountain on the eastern edge of Glacier National Park (U.S.) with his wife, Alice. He was 84.
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Edwards was prominent as a supporter of the use of DDT and critic of Rachel Carson. He was active as a member of, or consultant for, a wide range of lobby groups opposed to environmental regulation, including the American Council on Science and Health. According to Edwards, he was also active as a member of several environmental groups such as the Sierra Club (which published one of his books,) and the Audubon Society.[1] Edwards was a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. He has published his ideas in 21st Century Science and Technology, a publication of the Lyndon LaRouche Movement.[2] He was co-author, with Steven Milloy of 100 things you should know about DDT.[3]
Edwards insisted that "no human beings have ever been harmed by DDT." According to 21st Century Science and Technology, a photograph appeared in the September, 1971 issue of Esquire magazine, showing Edwards eating a teaspoon full of DDT, which he claimed to do on a weekly basis to demonstrate the lack of toxicity of DDT for humans and vertebrate animals. Because of its role in preventing the spread of insect-borne diseases, Edwards asserted that "DDT has saved more millions of lives than any other man-made chemical." [4]
Edwards was a park ranger in Glacier National Park for nine years beginning in 1947[5], and returned often in the years following. He spent much of his free time exploring the rugged terrain of the park, and pioneered many different routes up a variety of its spectacular mountains. In the forward to his mountaineering classic, A Climber's Guide to Glacier National Park, Rolf Larson gave him the unofficial title of "patron saint of climbing" in the park [6]. The guide book was first published by the Sierra Club in 1961, with the most recently updated edition published in 1995. Edwards was also a founding member of the Glacier Mountaineering Society, a group that publishes an annual climbing journal and continues to be active in organizing hikes and climbs throughout the park [7].
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