Bud received an undergraduate degree in wildlife biology at Colorado State University. He then immediately went to Alaska where he worked and lived for 30 years. At the University of Alaska, Fairbanks Bud studied wildlife biology and received a MS degree conducting research on 4 species of alcid seabird nesting on a remote island in the Gulf of Alaska.

For a number of years he worked as a research biologist studying various topics including moose/habitat relationships, songbird populations in relation to succession, tundra bird populations and migration, and woodpecker populations after natural forest fires. Since 1983, Bud has worked as a naturalist and expedition leader with Lindblad Expeditions. During these years he has traveled in the Arctic and Antarctic, temperate and tropical regions of Central and South America, Atlantic Ocean crossings, and the western South Pacific. These numerous voyages over the years has given him a chance to appreciate diversity of life and cultures which he finds fascinating. In addition to traveling, Bud is an avid natural history photographer and his wife writes children’s books on natural history self-illustrating them and using Bud’s photographs. Having built their own super-insulated house in Fairbanks over a 20 year period, in 2003 they relocated their family to northern Colorado. They are in the process of being owner/builders of a new energy efficient passive solar home in the foothills above Ft Collins.