Robert “Bob” Frisch (1930 – 1985)
Robert Frisch was born in Riga, Latvia. His family fled to Poland, and then went on to Denmark, during the Second World War. After the war they moved to England and then immigrated to Canada. Bob arrived in the Yukon by snowshoeing over the Chilkoot Pass in 1971. In 1973, he established a residence in a little cabin on the Dempster Highway with a goal of documenting the bird population of the Ogilvie Mountains. His extended overland treks made him a legend in the Yukon.1) Frish is known for being the first to locate the nests of Surfbirds in Canada.2)
Bob Frisch was the author of Birds by the Dempster Highway, first published in 1982. In 2001, he received a posthumous lifetime achievement award in appreciation of his work. The Biodiversity Awareness Award is given to individuals who have shown an outstanding contribution to Yukon biodiversity through education. Bob Frisch and Helmut Grunberg were the first recipients of this annual award.3)