Abstract
A prolific writer, a much sought-after speaker, and a highly respected professor, Richard Beidleman is one of Colorado College's most notable faculty members. He taught zoology from 1957-1968 and biology from 1968-1988. His research interests centered on the role of natural scientists in frontier America and Australia, and he helped author high school and junior high school biology textbooks, among approximately 250 other published works. The Colorado Springs community knows him best as a dedicated environmental activist who fought for many years for such causes as the preservation of the White House Ranch and the Garden of the Gods Park, the prevention of strip mining along Front Range quarries, and the successful League of Women Voters lawsuit against the City of Colorado Springs regarding the Palmer deeded parks. He served on the Colorado State Parks Board for eight years, including three and a half years as its chairman and succeeded, among other things, in obtaining Muehler Ranch as a state park. The Beidleman Environmental Center at Sondermann Park was established in his honor by the City of Colorado Springs.
Note
Digitized from the original Special Collections Audio tape R56. This interview is part of a larger collection totaling 89 individuals. Interview transcripts converted to PDF/A from Microsoft Word. Other file materials, biographical data sheets, indexes, legal releases scanned from originals and converted to text searchable PDF/A using Fujitsu 4150 scanner and Scandallpro software version 1.5. Scanned at 400 dpi. Photos scanned at 500 dpi and saved as jpeg. There are 131 preservation wave files (44.1 kHz, 16-bit) and 131 delivery mp3 files (128 kbps) in the set. Each file represents up to an hour of material, equivalent to one side of a reel-to-reel tape or both sides of a cassette tape. The 262 files are now located on both of two hard drives in Special Collections, the master drive (A1) formatted for Mac and a backup drive (B1) formatted for PC. (.wav preservation masters created by Tom Sanny using Final Cut Pro. Analog tapes digitized as QuickTime 44k16b .mov files. Dead air edited out and sound levels adjusted ; .wav files exported using FCP QuickTime Conversion tool ; .mp3 files created from .wav files using Switch.) All files are monaural.
