Alfred M. Dufty Jr. ’72

Despite all medical interventions, we lost our well-liked and super-fit classmate to sudden cardiac death while he was exercising April 16, 2012, in Boise, Idaho.

Al enrolled from Vestal (N.Y.) High School and roomed with Reggie Bird and Ed McConnell for three years. He played baseball, was captain of our nationally ranked basketball team, belonged to Cottage Club, and earned his degree in biology. Following graduation, Al played basketball in Paris, France, with classmate Gerald Couzens. Al married his college sweetheart, Bonnie Post, in 1975, earned advanced degrees at Binghamton University, did postdoctoral work at Rockefeller University, and moved to Boise State University in 1988, where he was a highly regarded professor of biology and associate dean of the graduate college.

Al was a renowned bird expert and an associate editor of The Auk (the ornithological journal), and could identify many birds just by their song.

Al is survived by Bonnie; children Brian and Cameron; his grandchildren; his mother; and his brother. We join all of them in saying, just as his teammates and coaching staff did one memorable night in 1970 after letting him off the team bus near his home following a Cornell victory: “Goodnight, Al!”