In memory of James F. Crow (1916-2012), a life dedicated to population genetics; with an updated list of his publications

Abstract

Professor James (“Jim”) F. Crow (Figure 1) died on January 4, 2012, of natural causes in Madison, Wisconsin, two weeks before his 96 birthday. Born in Phoenixville (Pennsylvania) on January 18, 1916, Professor Crow earned a B.A. in Chemistry and Biology from Friends University in 1937 and a Ph.D. in Zoology at the University of Texas in Austin under the supervision of Professor J. T. Patterson. His dissertation was on hybridization and isolating mechanisms in the mulleri group of Drosophila. From 1941 to 1948 he taught at Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire) before moving to the University of Wisconsin (UW) in Madison, where he worked formally from 1948 as an assistant professor until his retirement in 1986 as a senior distinguished research professor and afterwards as a retired UW emeritus professor. Two weeks before he passed away he was at his UW office working on a new paper. At UW he was the main person responsible for the creation of the Laboratory of Genetics and for maintaining its high standards. Besides attracting to it an exceptionally competent group of geneticists that transformed the department into a center of international excellence (in the sixties it was considered the best genetics center in the world), he was during many years head and chair of the Genetics and Medical Genetics departments and acting dean of the Medical School. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, World Academy of Art and Science, Genetics Society of America, American Society for Human Genetics, Royal Society (England), Japan Academy, Genetics Society of Japan, and Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. He was also an accomplished musician, having had formal education and training in violin and piano playing; he played viola at the Madison Symphony Orchestra, to which he belonged from 1949 to 1987 (president, 1984-1986). He was also a former president of the Madison Civic Association. It was when studying music that he met his lifelong wife Ann Crockett Crow (then a clarinet student), who died in 2001. He is survived by three children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Given his expertise in several areas of genetics, especially population genetics, human genetics, and radiation biology, since 1955 he was a scientific advisor to the National Academy of Sciences and the Congress of the United States, acting in Official Committees (in many as chair) on themes such as effects, risks, and impact of ionizing radiation and chemical mutagens, nuclear and alternative energy systems, and standardization of forensic genetic procedures. He had almost uncanny didactic and teaching skills and was regularly consulted on several issues dealing with undergraduate and graduate education policies, both at national as well as international levels. He wrote three fabulous textbooks, “Genetics Notes”, “An Introduction to Theoretical Population Genetics”, and “Basic Concepts in Population, Evolutionary and Quantitative Genetics”; more recently, he published, together with Genetics and Molecular Biology, 35, 1, 200-201 (2012) Copyright © 2012, Sociedade Brasileira de Genetica. Printed in Brazil www.sbg.org.br