Helmut Grünberg (1940 – 2015)
Helmut Grünberg was on his was to climb Denali in Alaska in the early 1970s. He was delayed in Whitehorse by a car accident and he liked the city enough to stay. He was trained in the sciences and became an instructor at Yukon College. He wrote Birds of Swan Lake, Yukon (1994) and was one of the authors of Birds of the Yukon Territory (2003). The Yukon Biodiversity Working Group presented the first annual Yukon Biodiversity Awareness Award to Helmut Grünberg in 2001. The award honours an individual who has made a significant contribution to biodiversity education and biodiversity awareness in the Yukon. Grünberg was well-known in the territory as an ardent birder. He helped start the Yukon Bird Club in 1993 and contributed every year to efforts such as the Christmas Bird Count and the Breeding Bird Survey. For decades, Grünberg shared his knowledge of and enthusiasm for the Yukon's birdlife, and regularly led local birdwatching trips.1)