Name John Sunder | Role Historian | |
Died April 3, 2011, Austin, Texas, United States Education Washington University in St. Louis (1954) Books Bill Sublette, The fur trade on the upper Missouri, 1840-1865, Joshua Pilcher, Fur Trader and Indian Agent Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, US & Canada | ||
John E. Sunder (1928-2011) (a.k.a. Jack Sunder) was an American historian and birdwatcher.
Contents
Personal and professional life
John E. Sunder was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928. He graduated with his Bachelor of Arts and Ph.D in history from Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the United States Army and served in Korea for two years. After returning from Korea, he moved to Austin, Texas in 1956. Sunder started birdwatching in the 1960s. He taught western history at the University of Texas. Sunder's historical research focused on the North American fur trade, the history of the Arctic, Canada, and American Indian history. He was the first person to teach a course about American Indian history in the University of Texas history department. He died in 2011.
Nature writing & birding
Sunder would become an active birder, in Central Texas, in the 1960s. He co-founded the American Birding Association. He participated in the Christmas Bird Count and was a frequent visitor to Pedernales Falls State Park, Bastrop State Park, McKinney Falls State Park, and Barton Springs. He also birded internationally, visiting New Zealand, South America, Finland and Iceland. He was a member of the Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy.
Legacy
Sunder's journals, "Occasional Observations on Nature," are held in the collection of the Austin History Center. His papers, and a collection of his photographs, are held in the collection of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. The University of Alaska Anchorage holds a collection of his photographic slides from trips to Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon.