Adriaan Joseph van Rossem

Adriaan Joseph van Rossem was an American ornithologist of Dutch ancestry. Born in Chicago, Van Rossem came from an affluent family where his father died very early in his life. Van Rossem went on to attend both public and private schools. In his teens he became influenced by Joseph Grinnell who led him into ornithology. He later did much work with Donald Ryder Dickey and shared the 1941 Brewster Medal with him. He was curator of the Donald Ryder Dickey Collection from 1912 until his death in 1949. He was a 1939 Guggenheim Fellow and received an honorary doctorate from Occidental College in 1948.