Frank W. Preston
Frank W. Preston (May 14, 1896 – March 1, 1989) was an English-American engineer, ecologist, and conservationist. He helped found the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and worked to reclaim the land that is now Moraine State Park in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Preston was a leading expert in glass technology. He studied birds throughout his life and published papers on the shapes and pigmentation of birds eggs, the distribution of the heights of their nests and their migration patterns. Preston also wrote three major papers on the mathematical characteristics of ecological rarity and commonness. Biography Early life Frank W. Preston was born on May 14, 1896, in Leicester, England. He received three degrees from the University of London upon graduation in 1916. Following his college years, Preston worked as a civil engineer in Loughborough, England. He was drafted into the British Army during World War I but received a maximum exemption through the efforts of his employer. Preston was personally against the exemption and wrote the draft board in 1917 stating a desire to serve "in anything useful and suggested a brief exemption." Preston first traveled to the United States in 1920. His employer, William Taylor, sent him