Fred Jüssi

Fred Jüssi (born January 29, 1935 – December 1, 2024) was an Estonian biologist, nature writer and photographer. Jüssi was born in Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, where his father worked for a Venezuelan oil company. His family returned to Estonia and settled in Tallinn when Jüssi was 3 years old. After finishing high school in Tallinn he studied biology and zoology at the University of Tartu, graduating in 1958. He worked as a school teacher (from 1958 to 1960 in Emmaste, Hiiumaa), as inspector for nature protection (1962–1975), radio broadcaster for Eesti Raadio, freelance writer and nature campaigner. In Eesti Raadio he ran the program Looduse aabits (ABC book of nature) from 1976 to 1986. In October 1980, Jüssi was a signatory of the Letter of 40 Intellectuals, a public letter in which forty prominent Estonian intellectuals defended the Estonian language and protested the Russification policies of the Kremlin in Estonia. The signatories also expressed their unease against Republic-...