Donald Strathearn Rawson was born in Claremont, Ontario on May 19, 1905. He attended the University of Toronto starting in 1922 and had earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. by 1929. Rawson joined the University of Saskatchewan’s Biology Department as Assistant Professor of Zoology in 1928 and became Head of the Department in 1949. Rawson’s field of study was limnology (study of inland aquatic ecosystems) and he made limnological investigations of a number of lakes and other fresh water bodies in Canada, particularly Western Canada, publishing numerous scientific papers. The aim of his research was to provide a scientific basis for improved fisheries management. Rawson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1944; served as president of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography in 1947; was a member of the Royal Commission on Fisheries in Saskatchewan in 1948; was Canadian representative of the International Association of Limnology in 1949; and was a member of the Fisheries Research Board from 1959 to 1961. Rawson died on February 16, 1961.