Frank Albert Stromsten was born April 5, 1872, in Corydon, Iowa. He received his B.S. in June 1900 from the State University of Iowa. He held a fellowship in the Department of Animal Morphology and Physiology under Professor Gilbert L. Houser from 1900 until 1902. He received his M.S. in June 1902 and then served as assistant instructor for one year. From 1903 until 1905 he held a fellowship at Princeton University and took the Sc.D. degree.

He returned to the State University of Iowa as instructor of zoology in September 1905. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1910, and associate professor in 1918. He conducted research about turtles at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory at Lake Okoboji and became acting director of this facility from 1923 through 1926. He reduced his teaching schedule to part time in 1942 and retired in 1950.

In 1910 he married Grace Swaney and they had two children. Frank Stromsten died November 26, 1958.

Denise Anderson, December 2007