In Memoriam: Robert O’Gorman

October 12, 1947–January 10, 2025 Robert (Bob) O’Gorman, retired U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Supervisory Research Fishery Biologist, lost his battle with cancer and left us on January 10, 2025. Bob’s career began with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at the Great Lakes Fishery Laboratory (now the USGS Great Lakes Science Center [GLSC]) in 1972. Prior to employment at the USFWS, Bob earned a BS at Michigan State University and served in the US Army. One of his first projects was working on the Research Vessel R/V Kaho in Lake Ontario during the 1972 International Field Year on the Great Lakes. That was also when he met his wife, Kathi. After that he worked on fish stock assessments in Lakes Michigan and Huron through the fall of 1977. In 1978 Bob, Joe Elrod and Roger Bergstedt made up the initial scientific crew establishing the USFWS Lake Ontario Biological Station (LOBS) in Oswego, New York, where he would spend the rest of his career. Bob also later participated in a 1993 scientific exchange program between USFWS and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lake Baikal. Bob’s career with GLSC spanned nearly 4 decades (1972–2008) and lasted through several agency changes, beginning as fishery biologist and then as the supervisor of the USGS Lake Ontario Biological Station in Oswego from 1998 through his retirement in 2008. Throughout his long career, Bob was recognized as a stalwart for standardized population assessments and long-term data series for delivering the best estimates of preyfish population trends. His work developing and refining the spring alewife assessment program and his research on alewife population biology was known and appreciated basin wide. The alewife survey Bob developed, and later passed down to current USGS and NYSDEC biologists, has successfully informed science-based management of New York’s economically important Lake Ontario sport fisheries for over 4 decades and continues today as one of the most important programs delivered to the lake’s resource managers. In addition to alewife research and station management, Bob was also a prolific writer who, with his MSU bachelor’s degree as his foundation, authored more than 90 reports and peer reviewed publications (two of which were James W. Moffet Award winners for the best GLSC papers that year). He also served editorial roles for Transactions of the American Fisheries Society and when he retired, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission harnessed his writing skills to work with fishery managers on editing reports and gathering data for updates to the commercial fishing database. To most of us, Bob O’Gorman was a colleague, mentor, and friend, and our collaborations with him were both productive and fun. He had an easy-going style and a great sense of humor and dinners with Bob after a long day of work or after a meeting were always a highlight. However, not everyone always agreed with his developing insights, especially during the period in the 1990’s when critical stocking decisions had to be made and tension between the fishing public and resources managers was high. But Bob often stood his ground, and as he worked to unravel and communicate the rhythms and drivers of the Lake Ontario ecosystem he relied on his integrity as a scientist to objectively let the survey observations, combined with the creative insight grown out of the collaborative approach, tell the story. He also had the integrity and humility to let his views evolve as the ecosystem changed during his long career and new science emerged. The resource managers that worked with Bob felt that his contributions to science-based management of New York’s Lake Ontario sport fisheries could not be overstated. He was an accomplished fishery biologist and many who were aware of his work felt his research on alewives in the Great Lakes was seminal. One of his more notable early achievements was finding out that alewives were routinely failing to form a clear annulus on scales past age four or five. Switching to otoliths for ageing, he revealed a very different picture of Alewife growth and longevity that’s led to more accurate estimates of Alewife production across the Great Lakes. He also later described how alewife abundance was tied to overwinter survival during their first year of life and how their overwinter depth distribution would deepen after the dreissenid mussel invasion. His alewife expertise brought him frequent inclusions on expert panels charged to determine the effects of salmonid predators on alewife populations and in one such instance Don Stewart (professor emeritus SUNY-Syracuse) proposed that the unit of alewife biomass eaten by salmon and trout each year should be renamed from “kilotonnes” to “O’Gormans”. For those of us who worked at the Lake Ontario Station with him, Bob was a true anchor in the storm who taught us a lot about navigating the turbulent waters of federal service and being good leaders. The relationships he built with the co-workers he supervised fostered respect and formed lasting friendships. The staff Bob supervised characterized him as a wonderful person who was influential in contributing to the knowledge of fish population dynamics in the Great Lakes. The people that supported the station’s science appreciated that he took the time to explain why we did the things the way we did, that he saw the value of career ladders and helped advance their careers, and that he was a no-nonsense boss that helped them succeed in the often-turbulent government workplace. He was also a veteran working at a station filled with vets and the relationships he built with them naturally had that extra something that vets have between them along with the good-natured humor that comes from that. After his retirement, Bob frequently visited the Lake Ontario Station making time for discussions on station leadership, survey history, and checking in on his long-time friends. His humor and his perch filet deliveries were always anticipated highlights. His passion for perch fishing was almost as well-known as his status as a Great Lake’s alewife expert. He and his wife Kathi frequently brought colleagues with them on their fishing adventures and introduced several of them to open water and ice fishing for perch which always included the pleasure of eating them. In one instance Rodger Bergstedt remembered catching perch with Bob and Kathi on Oneida Lake through the thinnest ice he could ever remember being on. He was pretty nervous, but Bob and Kathi seemed totally at ease. And while most of us knew he was a local perch fishing expert, like most fisherman, he was happy to talk about his success but not reveal his hotspots. If you asked him where they were biting, he would usually quip “out in the lake”. Those of us who worked closely with Bob felt fortunate to have his friendship continue into his retirement. Our office manager, Theresa Bower and Bob had a fun agreement, he would supply her with fresh perch, all cleaned and filleted, and she would bake him apple pies, his favorite; and we all looked forward to Bob and Kathi’s Christmas cards with the tales of their adventures and would live vicariously through the texts from Las Vegas on their latest winnings and by hearing about their international travel stories in person. Hearing of his passing, bob’s colleagues offered these remembrances: Bob was one of the best supervisors I’ve had the pleasure to work for, he is, and always will be truly missed. Bob was a no-nonsense boss and a kind man who sometimes hid that fact behind a gruff façade. I was fortunate to have him as a supervisor and for him to become my friend, I certainly miss that friendship. Bob was a good friend and mentor. He truly enriched my life, and I am certain that he enriched the lives of many others. I am so very glad and so very grateful to have known him. I feel privileged that I was challenged and mentored by Bob. I am proud of our collaborations, but regret that he never did reveal his best perch fishing spots. Miss you Bob! Bob forged an indelible legacy in Great Lakes fisheries research and management, and while he is sorely missed, he will not be forgotten. I am honored to have had the privilege of working with Bob for even a small part of his career and greatly miss the opportunity to have known him better. Bob was a true professional, a dedicated field biologist, and a gifted researcher. Bob was a unique character and a true example to pattern a federal career after, I’ll miss his friendship, guidance, the laughs, and the perch dinners. He was a great guy to hang out with and have a few beers after a long day on the boat shoveling Alewives! Bob O'Gorman was definitely one of the good guys. His expertise and leadership on the large vessel cruises kept everyone motivated and working efficiently. He fostered a strong sense of camaraderie, no easy task when working in the close quarters of a small ship. His passing remains a big shock I can’t hardly believe, he will be sorely missed.

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