Few people have ever seriously wished to be exclusively rational. The good life which most desire is a life warmed by passions and touched with that ceremonial grace which is impossible without some affectionate loyalty to traditional form and ceremonies.

Born in Knoxville Tennessee he initially studied at the University of Tennessee and received a masters degree and Ph. D. After moving to Arizona in 1952 he wrote books about natural issues of ecology the southwestern desert environment and the natural history of the Grand Canyon winning renown as a naturalist and conservationist.

He died in Tucson at age 76 from colon cancer in 1970. Afterwards he worked as teacher at Brooklyn Polytechnic.