Joseph Edward Kirkwood was born in 1872. He earned his bachelors degree from Pacific University in 1898, a master's from Princeton University in 1902, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1903. He served in many positions in the New York Botanical Garden, the Continental-Mexican Rubber Company, and the Carnegie Institution Desert Laboratory. In 1909, he became a professor of Botany and Forestry at the University of Montana; he became professor of Botany, and head of that department, in 1914. He undertook a trip through the national forests in Montana and Idaho in 1910. Morton J. Elrod provided funding from the budget of the University of Montana Biological Station on Flathead Lake. Kirkwood died in 1928.
From the guide to the J. E. Kirkwood Papers, 1906-1928, (Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)
