In Memoriam: Philip Strong Humphrey, 1926–2009

Abstract

Philip S. Humphrey, Member (), Elective Member (), and Fellow () of the AOU, was born in Hibbing, Minnesota, on  February . He died in Lawrence, Kansas, on  November . The son of an iron mining engineer, he grew up in Litchfield, Connecticut, where from earliest memory he was interested in birds—an interest encouraged by S. Dillon Ripley and by his childhood friend Duryea Morton. He went on to become both a distinguished ornithologist and a leader in natural history museums and similar institutions. He nurtured many a career. Through the encouragement of Ernst Mayr, Phil studied biology at Amherst College, graduating cum laude in , having first served in the U.S. Air Force from  to  (during which he published two papers in The Migrant). Then, on the advice of Mayr, he went to the University of Michigan to work with Jocelyn Van Tyne and took his first ornithology course from Sewall Pettingill. His thesis was on the anatomy and systematic bio logy of the sea-ducks (Mergini), and he received his doctorate in . The systematics of waterfowl remained a lifelong interest. He remained at Michigan for two years, during which he managed to take apart (temporarily) one of the few existing specimens of the extinct Labrador Duck to study its anatomy, including its feather tracts (pterylosis). The Auk 129(4):785−786, 2012 © The American Ornithologists’ Union, 2012. Printed in USA.