Minckley, W. L.

Wendell Lee Minckley was born in Ottawa, Kansas on November 13, 1935. He contracted polio in 1945 and spent time in an iron lung before defying medical predictions by relearning how to walk. Shortly after graduating from high school in 1953, Minckley spilled a gallon of naphthalene on himself and was set ablaze while passing by a water heater with an open pilot light on his way to into his home to wash off the chemical. His mother wrapped him in a blanket and rushed him to the hospital, where he was treated for extensive burns.

In the fall of 1953, Minckley enrolled at the University of Kansas. He soon transferred to Kansas State University, as this institution's less hilly terrain was easier for a polio and burn survivor to navigate. Minckley majored in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology in addition to establishing himself as a gymnast. He graduated in 1957 and went on to earn his Masters' Degree in Zoology at the University of Kansas in 1959 and his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Louisville in 1962.

Minckley taught in the Biology Department at Western Michigan University for a year before joining Arizona State University's fledgling Zoology Department in 1963. Here, he studied aquatic ecosystems and southwestern fishes, eventually establishing a well regarded program in aquatic ecology, systematic ichthyology, and conservation biology. Minckley is particularly well known for his long-term work at Lake Mohave, Aravaipa Creek, and Cuatro Cienegas. He also helped to found the Desert Fishes Council (1968) and earned a number of awards in addition to publishing numerous articles and books, including Fishes of Arizona (1973), Fishes of Mexico (2005), and Battle against Extinction (with James Deacon; 1991).

Minckley retired from Arizona State University in 2000 and died of complications from cancer treatment in Mesa, Arizona on June 22, 2001. He was survived by his wife, four sons, and three daughters.