Member

Dick was born in Tuxedo, New York, on November 20, 1910. He grew up in the beautiful Ramapo Mountains and developed an early interest in natural history and the outdoors. This interest led him to become an Eagle Scout within the Boy Scouts, and for many summers he worked as a nature counselor and nature director at Boy Scout Camps in New York State. After this, he spent quite a few summers working in National Parks as a ranger naturalist. Dick graduated from high school in 1928 and moved on to Dartmouth College, from which he received his AB degree in 1932. At college he became very interested in cross country skiing and canoeing, and joined the Dartmouth Outing Club. One noteworthy trip with this group was their voyage down the full length of the Connecticut River. Dick then earned his MS degree at University of California, Los Angeles, studying termites. Dick was married to Mary Louise Reidell in 1940. Dick’s PhD degree studies were interrupted by World War II. He served as a medical supply officer in the U.S. Army Medical Administration Corps from 1942 to 1946. Dick was involved in an attempt to save General Patton’s life around V. E. Day when General Patton had broken his back. Unfortunately, Patton died before proper equipment could be located. After the War he finished his PhD degree at the University of Michigan on a small mammal study at the Huron Mountain Club. Dick began his professional career working as an assistant professor and then associate professor of zoology at Michigan State University, teaching mammalogy, zoogeography, and general zoology, as well as assisting with ornithology, ecology, and wildlife management. He had the reputation among students as a tough, but fair and honest, professor. In 1955, he took a job as curator of mammals at the New York Zoological Society. From 1956 to 1958, he worked as editorial assistant for the McGraw-Hill Company, and began at the same time a position as editor of the Journal of Mammalogy. Dick was very precise in his editorial work, and also he liked to give young scientists a chance to publish. He was well known for his ability in this area and advised other editors as well as establishing publishing standards. In 1958, he became chief of the mammal section of the Bird and Mammal Laboratories of the Division of Wildlife Research in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1960, he was appointed as director of the Bird and Mammal Laboratories. He went on an expedition to study walruses in the Bering Sea in 1961 and again in 1968. Dick testified before a Senate subcommittee multiple times to protect species by getting them the status of threatened or rare and endangered. In 1970, he became senior zoologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and worked in that position until he retired in 1972. Over the summers, Dick often worked in parks, including Acadia National Park, Shenandoah National Park, Glacier National Park, as well as the Trailside Museum. He also went on expeditions to New Mexico, Michigan, Florida, and Gaspe, Quebec. Some of the scientific organizations that Dick belonged to were the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the American Society of Mammalogists (editor from 1956 to 1961, and vice president from 1964 to 1965), the American Ornithologists’ Union, the Michigan Academy of Arts and Science, the Wilson Ornithological Society, the American Society of Ichthyology and Herpetology, the Society of Systematic Zoology, the Ecological Society of America, The Wildlife Society, the Society for the Study of Evolution, the Council of Biological Editors, the Arctic Institute of North America, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Nature Conservancy, the Wilderness Society, the Michigan Audubon Society, and the Biological Society of Washington (member of editorial board from 1962 to 1963, and chairman of this board from 1963 to 1964), as well as a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C., and the Explorers Club of New York. He wrote over 65 papers for journals, and also wrote many book reviews. His most noteworthy publications include A Study of Small Mammal Populations in Northern Michigan, Specialized Mammalian Terminology, and Distribution of Alaskan Mammals. Dick was elected to membership in the Washington Biologists’ Field Club in 1959 and played an active part in the Club activities, serving as its secretary from 1964 to 1971. Later, in 1974, he was awarded an honorary membership in the Club. His interest in the Club grew during the last few years of his life and he frequented Plummers Island. In 1968, he published Natural History of Plummers Island, Maryland: Annotated list of the vertebrates: Special Publication of the Washington Biologists’ Field Club: 1-44. Dick died on August 4, 1974, at his home in Arlington, Virginia. As he requested, his ashes were scattered over Plummers Island.