Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ

Oakleigh Thorne, II was born in New York City on October 12, 1928. He grew up at "Brookwood" in East Islip, NY, a 60-acre estate with woods, meadows, streams, and a lake, so he was "nature boy" right from the beginning, which set the pattern for his life as a naturalist. He went to Millbrook School in New York where he learned to band birds under Frank Trevor, his biology teacher, who also helped Oak get his own bird banding permit in 1947. Oak attended Yale where he received a B.S. in Biology (1951) and M.S. in Conservation (1953). He moved to Boulder, Colorado where he earned his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Colorado (1958). He also founded Thorne Films, an educational film company and Thorne Ecological Institute (now Thorne Nature Experience), a nonprofit organization that "connects kids to nature" through environmental education classes, now located in Lafayette on Coal Creek.