IN MEMORIAM: GARRETT EDDY, 1916–2001

Abstract

With the death of Garrett Eddy on 4 July 2001 in Seattle, Washington, the University of Washington Burke Museum lost one of its most generous donors, a man whose enthusiasm and support had helped transform the museum into one of North America's premier ornithological training centers. Born in Seattle on 8 June 1916, Garrett was a graduate of Harvard University where he studied ornithology with Ludlow Griscom, then a research associate. There, through his undergraduate association with the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Garrett developed a deep appreciation of museums and of the value of systematic collections. A member of the AOU since 1937, Garrett was elected posthumously as a Guarantor to the AOU in March, 2002 for his generous support of the 119th stated meeting of the society held in Seattle in August 2001. Because he wished students and professionals to see the quality of the Burke's program in ornithology, Garrett arranged to fund the lavish opening reception at the Burke Museum. Garrett Eddy was retired President and Board Chairman of Port Blakely Tree Farms, a private timber company. Its research in forest management made Port Blakely a leader in thinning stands and in moving from 40 to 80 year rotations between harvests of Douglas fir. These policies were good for wildlife and produced fortunes from the export of logs that were too big for modern mills designed for small second-growth timber. Although the war and the family business precluded Garrett's pursuit of a scientific career, he maintained a life-long passion for scientific studies of birds and forest ecology. Garrett was an exceedingly private man, but his passions involved mountaineering (in his youth), hunting, forestry, and ornithological research. He was intolerant of low productivity, impatient for results, single minded in pushing ideas, and uncommonly grumpy about things badly done. When Garrett was full of youthful enthusiasm for field research there were few ornithologists at the University of Washington. Although the Burke Museum was then an ornithological backwater, his father and Joshua Green had contributed more than 800 bird specimens from an east African safari during 1929-1930, and Garrett later contributed Washington specimens. The Burke's director, anthropologist Erna Gunther, had moved the administration of the museum into the academic Department of Anthropology; the curatorial assistant in zoology, Martha Flahaut, labored just to save its small bird and mammal collections. Only in the late 1950s did the Burke Museum appoint ornithologist Frank Richardson as one of its first faculty curators. For more than 20 years prior to Richardson's appointment, Garrett Eddy was one of Seattle's most important contacts for Northwest birds. He collected early state records, kept extensive field notes, and studied changes in land-bird communities caused by development and logging. In those early years, Roger Tory Peterson once called Garrett to inquire about the eye color of Thayer's Gulls. Garrett had no idea, but invited Peterson to join him for a boat cruise to collect some. They succeeded, and then birded together in eastern Washington. Garrett directed his early support to mammalogy at the University of Puget Sound where