Sam Hamilton, USFWS Director, Is Dead at 54

Sam D. Hamilton, who turned a Southern youth’s love of fish and waterfowl into a 30-year career with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, becoming the service’s director last year, died Saturday on a ski trip in Colorado. He was 54. His death was confirmed by the coroner’s office in Frisco, Colo. According to a statement from the coroner, Mr. Hamilton was pronounced dead after being transported off a mountain at the Keystone ski area suffering from chest pains. “The circumstances are consistent with an underlying heart-related medical issue,” the statement said. Mr. Hamilton was nominated in June by President Obama to be the service’s 15th director. He was sworn in three months later, after promising in his confirmation hearings before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that he would deliver a “science-driven, strategic, big-picture approach” to address the “overarching threat posed by climate change” and other issues, including habitat fragmentation, invasive species, limited water supplies and the illicit trade in wildlife...read more