Ripley, S. Dillon
(20 September 1913–12 March 2001)
- Pamela M. Henson
Extract
Ripley, S. Dillon (20 September 1913–12 March 2001), ornithologist, conservationist, and Smithsonian secretary, was born Sidney Dillon Ripley in New York City and grew up in Litchfield, Connecticut. The fourth child of Louis Arthur Dillon Ripley, a stockbroker, and Constance Baillie Rose, he was the great-grandson of Sidney Dillon, president of the Union Pacific Railroad. Ripley attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire and developed an early interest in natural history. At age thirteen he accompanied his family to India, and Ripley and his sister went on a six-week walking tour of Ladakh and western Tibet, stimulating a lifelong interest in East Asian natural history....
