John Roy "Bill" Pemberton

J.R. “Bill” Pemberton was a peripatetic petroleum geologist who was also a serious ornithologist. In May 1921, he was part of an early expedition to Green Island in the lower Laguna Madre. There he confirmed the existence of a thriving colony of reddish egrets, a bird that had been nearly obliterated by the plume trade. His article the next year in The Condor, “The Reddish Egrets of Cameron County, Texas”, helped spur efforts by the Audubon Society to lease Green Island, as well as other nearby islets, and to post wardens to protect their rookeries and help their recovery.