James Albert and Della Sprague Organ

Abstract

H ERPETOLOGISTS are well known for traveling widely to study their subjects, but some decide to focus on one area to conduct long-term studies their entire career. James A. (Jim) Organ was one of the latter who, in his case, chose to study salamanders on Whitetop Mountain, Virginia. He was born on 29 March 1931 in Newark, New Jersey, to James Aloysius Organ and Edna Doelger Organ. His father was a professional boxer but broke his left hand during a bare-knuckled fight, then became a taxi driver, followed by driving trucks for Coca-Cola. Jim’s mother was a homemaker but during World War II she briefly worked in an electronics factory. He had one younger brother, Donald John Organ, who died at age 55, the same age as his father when he died. His wife, Della J. Organ, was born on 4 May 1930 to Edward and Jane Sprague. Her father was an industrial electrician and her mother was a school principal in New Jersey. Della has two older sisters: Charlotte Tyler and Doris VanEss. Both became registered nurses and Della became a medical technologist. She worked at St. Joseph’s hospital one year in Michigan, then became a full-time mother and student, earning a BS in Zoology from the University of Michigan. Jim and Della have two daughters, Linda Joyce, born in 1960, and Sylvia Fawn, born in 1963. After the girls had grown, Della worked part time as a phlebotomist for the regional blood center and joined a volunteer ambulance squad working as an emergency medical technician for 22 years. From the age of 9 to 17 Jim was an active participant in the junior museum program at the Newark Museum where, for 10 cents a child, one could become a life member. His first trip to the museum was in 1940. Jim was reluctant to go because his hobby at the time was making model airplanes and boats. After his first field trip, his brother didn’t want to jump in the swamp anymore, but Jim kept it up and on Mondays fed snakes and cleaned the cages when the museum was closed to the public. During the first year Jim was interested in snakes, but, in the second year, at 10 years old, he was introduced to salamanders. The instructor, Frankie Culpepper Georges from Cornell University, taught him a variety of field techniques and impressed on Jim that little was known about salamanders and their life histories. He thanked her many years later for inspiring him to study salamanders. Jim’s mother was German Lutheran and his father Irish Catholic. Jim brought Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species to St. Michael’s Catholic School for an eighth grade book report, but the nuns read it and said that it was not appropriate for his studies. Three Irish Jesuit priests met with him about the book, but Jim came away with no clear understanding of what the church’s position was on evolution. Jim went to the Newark Museum staff and asked them to recommend a high school for science. After passing a city-wide entrance exam, Jim entered the engineering program at Central Commercial and Technical High in Newark from which he graduated in June 1948 at the age of 17. He immediately enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Jim had a strong interest in model airplanes as a kid so he figured he’d be a ‘‘fly boy’’ someday. Unfortunately, one had to be 20.5 years or older to be considered for pilot training. He then wanted to be a medical technician but as is often the case in the military, ended up in supply and logistics. He received