William P. Harris Jr.

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William Pickett Harris Jr. , known as William P. Harris Jr. , (born July 13, 1897 in Detroit , died April 7, 1972 in Grosse Pointe , Michigan ) was an American banker and zoologist.

biography

William Pickett Harris, called Bill, was born in 1897 to William Pickett and Sarah Edna McGraw Harris. He went to high school and then to Yale Sheffield Scientific School. In 1934 he received his Masters from the University of Michigan . In 1918 he served as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army and on February 27, 1923 he married Elsie Stivers Smith, with whom he had three children: Julia, William P. Harris, III and Richard A.

Harris developed a keen interest in the arts and the natural sciences and studied a wide variety of subjects in biology and the arts. With his work he played a significant role in the evolving mammalogy and the systematic collection of mammalian specimens for building the collection at the University of Michigan. From 1925 he worked closely with George Shiras III. and others with whom he created a collection of photographs of night shots of various mammals in their habitat and through which he established contact with the later curator for mammals at the University's Museum of Zoology, Lee R. Dice , and Alexander Ruthven , director of the museum and later President of the university. In 1927 he set up a foundation to support field research in the field of mammalogy, thus enabling long-term research projects to be carried out. In 1928 he officially became Associate Curator of the museum under Lee R. Dice and set up the Harris Fellowship as a student scholarship that primarily supported students who devoted themselves to research on rodents.

His main personal research area was the biology and taxonomy of the squirrel (family Sciuridae). He put on a collection of croissants for the museum and himself worked scientifically on the taxonomy of the group of animals, writing at least 16 scientific papers. In particular, a scientific revision of the Sciurus variegatus group in Central America in 1937 was identified as significant. After his health deteriorated significantly from 1969 onwards, he concentrated on getting photographs of all types of croissants, and he also kept a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography and a list of synonyms for the animal group. On this basis he wrote a comprehensive and illustrated synopsis of the croissants.

From 1954 to 1969 Harris was a member of the American Society of Mammalogists and a Trustee of the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills , Michigan. He was also President of the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation in Huron Mountain , Michigan, Life Member of the American Museum of Natural History , Representative of the University of Michigan in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and a member of several other organizations.

Publications (selection)

  • William P. Harris Jr .: A new squirrel from China. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan 228; Pp. 1-2.
  • William P. Harris Jr .: Four new mammals from Costa Rica. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan 248, 1932; Pp. 1-6. ( Full text )
  • William P. Harris Jr .: Revision of Sciurus variegatoides, a species of Central American squirrel Miscellaneous Publications No. 38, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, September 4, 1937.
  • William P. Harris Jr., Philip Hershkovitz : Two new squirrels from Ecuador. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan 391, 1938; Pp. 1–21. ( Full text )
  • William P. Harris Jr .: Additions and corrections to the section of Sciuridae in Ellerman's Families and Genera of Living Rodents. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan 484, 1944; Pp. 1-21.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d Emmet T. Hooper : Orbituary: William Pickett Harris, Jr., 1897-1972 Journal of Mammalogy 53 (4), November 1972; Pp. 923-924. ( JSTOR )

literature

  • Emmet T. Hooper : William Pickett Harris, Jr., 1897-1972 Journal of Mammalogy 53 (4), Nov. 1972; Pp. 923-924. ( JSTOR )
personal data
SURNAME Harris, William P. Jr.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harris, William P .; Harris Jr., William Pickett
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American banker and mammal logue
DATE OF BIRTH July 13, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1972
Place of death Grosse Pointe , Michigan