Allyn B. Powell
NOAA Beaufort Lab Oral Histories
Interviews with retired staff of NOAA Beaufort Lab, documenting their academic background, career path, research focus, and reflections on their work in the lab.
- Allyn B. Powell: Born in Wilkes-Barre, PA, and raised in Jersey City, NJ, and vicinity.
- Graduated from Middlesex County (NJ) Vocational and Technical School in 1954 with certification in Machine Drawing.
- Employed by Bethlehem Steel Co. until 1957 when he volunteered for the draft; a majority of his service time in the U.S. Army was spent at White Sands Missile Range (NM) as a surveyor and draftsman.
- Leaving the Service in 1960, Allyn went back to work for Bethlehem Steel in San Francisco and New Jersey.
- In 1964 Allyn volunteered for the Peace Corps and was stationed in The Cameroons in Africa through 1966.
- He entered Michigan State University’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1970.
- He entered the Master’s program at the University of North Carolina and received his degree in 1974; his thesis topic was on the life history of paralichthine flounders.
- From 1973 to 1975 Allyn was employed by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, where he participated in seasonal offshore survey cruises designed to tag commercially-important flounder species and to explore deep-sea red crab and lobster resources off the North Carolina coast.
- In 1975 he was hired by NOAA’s Beaufort Laboratory. Allyn’s initial responsibilities were spawning and rearing coastal fishes, mainly spot and menhaden, while describing and developing feeding regimes for the larvae.
- He participated in larval fish studies in the Gulf of Mexico 1979 through the late 1980s and was a lead investigator for ichthyoplankton and juvenile fish surveys in Florida Bay 1999 through the early 2000s.
- Allyn enrolled Oregon State University’s Graduate School program in the Fisheries and Wildlife Department in 1982 via NOAA’s Scholarship Program and was conferred his Ph.D. in 1989.
- He retired from the Beaufort Lab in 2005.
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