Fonds F1935 - Allen Sherman West fonds

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1909, Allen Sherman West received his Bachelor of Science in Entomology from the University of Massachusetts in 1931, and four years later he was awarded his Ph.D. in Zoology and Forestry from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Following service with the United States Department of Agriculture's, Forest Insect Service as an Assistant Entomologist, he accepted a position as Professor of Forest Entomology at the University of New Brunswick in 1939. By so doing he became the first Chair in Forest Entomology in Canada.

Allen West saw service with the Canadian Army during the Second World War, and in 1946, he obtained an appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Queen's University at Kingston.

Three years later he was promoted to full professor and over the succeeding twenty-eight years until his retirement in 1974, at which time he was made Professor Emertius of the Department, he became one of the leading experts in Canada in the field of biting fly control, and had made important contributions in the fields of entomology and parasitology, as well as becoming a leader in the development and establishment of environmental policies in Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Following his retirement from Queen's he remained active in a number of fields, both at the community level and further afield. In the early 1980's he conducted environmental impact studies for massive hydro electric dam projects underway in Columbia. Allen West was the author of numerous articles and several monographs, as well as being a co-author of the history of the Department of Biology at Queen's University at Kingston.