IN MEMORIAM: OLIN SEWALL PETTINGILL, JR., 1907–2001

Abstract

Olin Pettingill, Jr., died peacefully in his sleep in Bedford, Texas, 11 December 2001, at the age of 94, after a long and distinguished career in American ornithology. Sewall Pettingill, as he preferred to be called, was an exceptional college professor, lecturer, photographer, filmmaker, and writer about bird life. Pettingill was born in Belgrade, Maine, on 30 October 1907, the only child of Dr. Olin Pettingill and Marion Groves. His father hoped young would follow in his footsteps and seek a career in medicine. Throughout childhood, really was not sure what he wanted to be. He had developed an interest in the chickens on his grandfather's farm, and at one time considered being a poultryman. In his own words he performed marginally well in school; his grades upon high school graduation in 1925 were not sufficient for admission into Bowdoin College-the only college he would consider. willingly attended a preparatory school, Kents Hill, in nearby Readfield, for one year, and was admitted into Bowdoin College in fall of 1926. One thing knew for certain as a youngster, however, was his love for his childhood sweetheart, Eleanor, whom he met in 1921 in the 8th grade. He dated and courted Eleanor for 11 years, and married her on New Year's Eve, 1932. She was intimately involved in all of Sewall's ornithological endeavors, and even wrote her own book, A Penguin Summer (1960), a story of their adventures filming penguins and other birds in the Falkland Islands in 1953-1954. He published his version of that story in National Geographic Magazine in 1956. At Bowdoin College, developed his interests in ornithology, mostly through his interactions with eminent zoology professor Alfred 0. Gross. As a reporter for the college newspaper, interviewed Dr. Gross on his Ruffed Grouse investigations in Maine, and also his census work of the Heath Hen at Martha's Vineyard. One of his most memorable trips was on 5 April 1927, when he accompanied Dr. Gross, along with famed childrens' author Thornton W. Burgess, on a trip to Martha's Vineyard to observe, photograph, and take motion pictures of the three remaining male heath hens who did their courting dance in vain-the last female had already died. photographed one of the males, and later published his first article, The Passing of the Heath Hen, in Forest & Stream in 1929. developed his skills in photography and motion pictures as tools for documenting bird life. In the summer of 1928, he enrolled at the University of Michigan Biological Station to undertake a course in field ornithology taught by Dr. Gross. This ultimately became his benchmark summer, as he studied and photographed nesting Hermit Thrushes, and later published the results in the inaugural volume of BirdBanding (1930). At that point, graduate school loomed clearly on his horizon. arrived in Ithaca in fall of 1930 to attend Cornell University and commenced a study of the American Woodcock for his Ph.D. dissertation under renowned ornithologist Dr. Arthur A. Allen. His fellow graduate students included George Miksch Sutton, John T. Emlen, and George B. Saunders. As a photographer and ornithologist, accompanied Sutton on expeditions to Hudson Bay in 1931 and Mexico in 1941. received his Ph.D. in 1933 and spent the next three years in various teaching positions with the New Hampshire Nature Camp, Westbrook Junior College, and Bowdoin College. He obtained a 12-gauge shotgun with plenty of shells and dust shot, and began preparing bird study skins for his teaching col-