[mou] John Jarosz, birder behind the scenes

[Richard Wood]

In reading this, I'm curious about something.

If one "could 
make 
a 
rock 
so 
real 
you 
almost 
could 
hear 
the 
click 
of 
wolves’ 
claws 
as 
they 
walked 
across 
it", 
or "make 
mud 
that 
looked 
as 
sticky 
as 
the 
real 
thing", then why can't one make fake birds and animals instead of killing and stuffing them?

Richard
 
Richard L. Wood, Ph. D.
Hastings, MN
rwoodphd at yahoo.com

----- Original Message ----
From: Jim Williams <two-jays at att.net>
To: mou-net at moumn.org
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 10:10:10 PM
Subject: [mou] John Jarosz, birder behind the scenes


John 
Jarosz 
died 
a 
few 
days 
ago. 
The  
name 
might 
not 
be 
familiar, 
but 
if 
you 
have 
visited 
the 
Bell 
Museum 
of 
Natural 
History, 
you 
are 
familiar 
with 
his 
work. 
John, 
a 
resident 
of 
Brooklyn 
Center 
who 
lived 
to 
be 
age 
92, 
was 
a 
noted 
wildlife 
artist 
and 
chief 
curator 
of 
exhibits 
at 
the 
museum 
for 
33 
years. 
He 
also 
was 
a 
wood 
carver 
of 
extraordinary 
talent. 
In 
1995 
I 
was 
privileged 
to 
visit 
with 
John 
one 
afternoon. 
This 
story 
was 
drawn 
from 
that 
interview. 
It 
first 
appeared 
in 
the 
MOU 
newsletter 
in 
November 
1995. 
— 
Jim 
Williams

=====

It 
all 
began 
when 
John 
Jarosz 
shot 
a 
duck 
near 
a 
private 
hunting 
preserve 
belonging 
to 
the 
King 
of 
England. 
The 
King 
has 
nothing 
more 
to 
do 
with 
this 
story, 
but 
the 
duck 
does.

John 
began 
his 
working 
career 
as 
a 
barber, 
learning 
that 
trade 
at 
age 
16. 
Later, 
he 
was 
a 
steeplejack. 
He 
entered 
the 
Army 
in 
1942, 
training 
as 
a 
combat 
engineer. 
He 
spent 
his 
war 
years 
building 
air 
bases 
in 
England.

That 
is 
where 
he 
shot 
the 
duck, 
a 
black 
and 
white 
bird 
with 
reddish 
feet, 
a 
Shelldrake. 
“It 
was 
a 
gorgeous 
bird,” 
he 
told 
me. 
“I 
decided 
to 
preserve 
the 
specimen.” 
He 
had 
learned 
taxidermy 
as 
a 
youngster. 
The 
duck 
was 
prepped 
with 
a 
pocket 
knife, 
gasoline 
used 
to 
clean 
the 
skin. 

John 
wrapped 
his 
finished 
bird 
and 
sent 
it 
home. 
Custom 
officials 
confiscated 
the 
package. 
Possession 
of 
the 
mounted 
duck 
was 
illegal, 
his 
parents 
were 
told. 
Destroy 
it 
or 
give 
it 
to 
a 
museum.

His 
parents 
called 
Dr. 
T.S. 
Roberts 
at 
the 
University 
of 
Minnesota 
Museum 
of 
Natural 
History. 
He 
accepted 
the 
Shelldrake, 
and 
he 
was 
so 
impressed 
with 
the 
taxidermy 
work 
that 
he 
asked 
to 
visit 
with 
John 
when 
his 
Army 
duty 
was 
finished.

And 
that 
is 
how 
John 
became 
preparator, 
curator, 
and 
taxidermist 
for 
the 
Bell 
museum.

If 
you 
have 
visited 
the 
museum 
and 
toured 
its 
quiet, 
darkened 
halls, 
standing 
before 
those 
windows 
that 
open 
upon 
so 
many 
different 
Minnesota 
landscapes, 
you 
have 
seen 
much 
of 
what 
John 
created 
during 
his 
university 
tenure.

Many 
of 
the 
dioramas 
at 
the 
museum 
contain 
his 
taxidermy 
work, 
and 
show 
his 
skill 
at 
recreating 
the 
environment 
in 
which 
the 
plants 
and 
animals 
on 
display 
once 
lived. 
He 
could 
show 
you 
how 
to 
create 
a 
tree 
or 
fashion 
leaves 
and 
flowers 
from 
wax. 
He 
could 
make 
a 
rock 
so 
real 
you 
almost 
could 
hear 
the 
click 
of 
wolves’ 
claws 
as 
they 
walked 
across 
it, 
make 
mud 
that 
looked 
as 
sticky 
as 
the 
real 
thing.

John 
and 
his 
coworkers 
labored 
as 
long 
as 
two 
years 
to 
create 
one 
of 
those 
large 
displays.

In 
his 
retirement 
years, 
John 
pointed 
those 
skills 
at 
much 
smaller 
targets. 
In 
the 
neat 
living 
room 
of 
John 
and 
wife 
Margie 
in 
the 
fall 
of 
1995, 
inside 
a 
lighted 
display 
case, 
were 
a 
Passsenger 
Pigeon, 
a 
Great 
Auk, 
a 
Carolina 
Parakeet, 
an 
Ivory-billed 
Woodpecker, 
and 
a 
handful 
of 
other 
birds 
and 
mammals.

Handful 
is 
the 
key 
word. 
The 
birds 
could 
perch 
on 
your 
index 
finger. 
You 
could 
hold 
a 
flock 
of 
them 
in 
one 
hand. 
These 
were 
tiny, 
perfectly 
formed 
miniatures 
carved 
and 
painted 
by 
John. 
He 
fashioned 
more 
than 
500 
of 
these 
delicate 
works 
of 
art.

MOU 
member 
Bob 
Janssen 
has 
a 
set 
of 
all 
of 
the 
Minnesota 
warblers, 
regular 
and 
casual, 
carved 
by 
John. 
His 
first 
carving 
for 
Bob 
was 
a 
Henslow’s 
Sparrow, 
fashioned 
in 
the 
year 
following 
his 
retirement. 
In 
2003, 
Bob 
received 
his 
last 
Jarosz 
carvings, 
two 
woodpeckers. 

Most 
of 
his 
carvings 
were 
of 
birds. 
“They 
were 
my 
first 
love,” 
he 
told 
me. 
“What 
would 
we 
do 
without 
our 
feathered 
friends?”





-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

This 
mailing 
list 
is 
sponsored 
by 
the 
Minnesota 
Ornithologists' 
Union.  
Mailing 
list 
membership 
available 
on-line 
at 
http://moumn.org/subscribe.html.
-----
To 
unsubscribe 
send 
a 
blank 
email 
to 
mou-net-request at moumn.org 
with 
a 
subject 
of 
unsubscribe.







      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for last minute shopping deals?  
Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.  http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080131/fc7ecbaa/attachment-0001.html