J. Gordon Edwards (entomologist)

J. Gordon Edwards (1919–2004) was an American entomologist and proponent of the use and safety of the pesticide DDT. He was professor of entomology at San Jose State University for 40 years, and namesake to the university's entomology museum. He was an outspoken critic of Rachel Carson and efforts to ban DDT, famously eating the substance to demonstrate its safety to humans. He was also a noted mountain climber, spending nine seasons as a ranger-naturalist in Glacier National Park during the 1940s and '50s, and returning often to collect insects and map routes. His 1961 book A Climber's Guide to Glacier National Park, republished several times since, made him known as the "patron saint of climbing" in the park, where he died while hiking, aged 84.

24 August 1919

Born on the same birth date (24 August 1919): Enrique Llanes • Tosia Altman

Born on the same birth day (24 August): Alex Colville • Alexander McCall Smith • Anjali Devi • Cormac Murphy-O'Connor • Dick Lee • Fernand Braudel • Harry Hooper • Molly Duncan • Robert Herrick (poet)

Born in the same month (August 1919): Benedict Kiely • George Wallace • Kitty Wells • List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients (E) • Malcolm Forbes • Margaret Burbidge • Murray Grand • Rex Humbard • Wally Hickel