Robert M. McClung, 89, of Amherst, Mass., died Saturday at Cooley-Dickinson Hospital in Nort-hampton, Mass.

Born Sept. 10, 1916, in Butler, he was a graduate of Butler High School, Northwood School in Lake Placid, N.Y., and Princeton University.

During World War II, he was a Navy communications officer, pilot and landing signal officer and achieved the rank of lieutenant commander.

He then was a copywriter at a New York City advertising agency and took writing courses at New York University. His first book, "Wings in the Woods," a fictionalized version of his summers on this grandfather's farm, was published in 1948.

He received a master's degree at Cornell University and began his dream job by working at the Bronx Zoo in New York. In 1955, he left the zoo, where he was curator of mammals and birds, to devote to his writing. In 1958, he moved to Washington, D.C., as a natural history writer and editor for the National Geographic. In 1962, he moved to Amherst to devote his time to the writing of his own books.

He published 66 books, including "Green Darner," "The Story of a Dragonfly;" and "Bufo, the Story of a Toad." He has received numerous awards, including National Science Teachers Association awards for outstanding science books for children and the Amherst Chamber of Commerce Dakin Award for community service.

He was an active member of the First Church (UCC), Amherst.

He also was a honky-tonk pianist.

Surviving are his wife, Gale McClung, whom he married in 1949; a son Bill, daughter-in-law Emily and grandchildren Greg and Melissa of Pelham, Mass.; a son, Tom and his friend, Anne, of Paris; a brother, Richard in Concord, Mass.; a sister, Mary Anne Ladd, in Northfield, Mass., and numerous nieces and nephews.

A brother, Frank, died in 1982.

<B>MCCLUNG</B> — A service in celebration of the life of Robert M.McClung, who died Saturday, June 24, 2006, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at First Church, 165 Main St., Amherst.In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the Kestrel Trust, P.O. Box 1016, Amherst, MA 01002; the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, 525 S. Pleasant St., Amherst, MA 01002; or The First Congregational Church, 165 Main St., Amherst, MA 01002.