He worked briefly at the college museum and then at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York.

[1] He worked briefly at a Cedar Rapids electric bulb factory before shifting to natural history.

Originally educated and employed as a mechanical engineer, he was unsatisfied and decided to study taxonomy and taxidermy instead.

This distinction was given to "American citizens whose achievements in outdoor activity, exploration and worthwhile adventure are of such an exceptional character as to capture the imagination of boys...".

The other eighteen men who were awarded this distinction were: Roy Chapman Andrews, Robert Bartlett, Frederick Russell Burnham, Richard E. Byrd, James L. Clark, Merian C. Cooper, Lincoln Ellsworth, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, George Bird Grinnell, Charles A. Lindbergh, Donald Baxter MacMillan, Clifford H. Pope, George Palmer Putnam, Kermit Roosevelt, Carl Rungius, Stewart Edward White, and Orville Wright.