Dr.Theodore Kazimiroff (1914-1980) received the Pugsley Medal in 1968, By profession Kazimiroff was a dentist who practiced in the Bronx. He graduated from Manhattan College in 1936 and from the New York University College of Dentistry in 1940. He subsequently taught at the college true calling was as self-appointed preserver of our past and for much of his life he dedicated himself to protecting places of historical and ecological significance in the Bronx.
He was well-informed in many scientific disciplines,but was especially noted for his expertise in zoology, botany, anthropology and local history. He excavated,collected and cataloged a museum full of artifacts, books, maps and documents that was vast. Kazimiroff's zeal for archeological discovery went back to his youth. As a young boy, he frequently walked from his house in Throggs Neck to the woody hills of Hunter and Twin Islands. The area fascinated him because it contained all of the flora and fauna he had read about in his Boy Scout manuals. He was the "Official Bronx Historian ", a position he held from 1953 until his death in 1980. He was known being a fascinating lecturer and he was the chief mover behind the preservation of the wilderness areas of Pelham Bay Park which became the Thomas Wild Life Sanctuary and the Hunters Island Marine Zoology.