Dean Arthur Amadon

Background

Amadon was born on June 6, 1912, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Arthur and Mary Amadon.

Education

Dean Amadon earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Hobart College in 1934. In 1947, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Cornell University with a thesis on Hawaiian honeycreepers.

Career

Amadon joined the staff of the American Museum of Natural History in 1937 as a graduate student. In 1940, he was appointed Assistant Curator. Dean Amadon remained at the museum until 1973 serving as Lamont Curator of Ornithology, beginning in 1955, and as chair of the ornithology department. He later traveled extensively throughout the world on ornithological field trips. Amadon eventually focused his research on the natural history of raptors. Amadon served his profession as the president of the American Ornithologists Union, the Linnean Society, and the John Burroughs Memorial Association. Moreover, he was a director of the Explorers Club and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Achievements

• Dean Amadon was a renowned expert on birds of prey, and his Eagles, Hawks, and Falcons of the World is no doubt his most important scientific study. Another important work, however, was his doctoral program investigation of the evolution of the honeycreepers, a family of birds endemic to the Hawaiian Islands.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World 1968
  • Curassows and Related Birds 1973
  • Birds around the world: A geographical look at evolution and birds 1966

Views

Among Amadon’s early interests were the birds of Hawaii and the Pacific that he first encountered while a soldier during World War II. Eventually, he focused his research on the natural history of raptors.

Membership

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  In 1930, Dean Amadon became a member of the American Ornithologists' Union. In 1964, he was its president.

  American Ornithologists' Union , United States

  1930 - 2002

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  Amadon was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  American Association for the Advancement of Science , United States

  1964 - 1966

• 

  Amadon was a member of the Linnaean Society of New York.

  Linnaean Society of New York , United States

• 

  Dean Amadon joined The Explorers Club in 1959.

  The Explorers Club , United States

  1959

Personality

Dean Amadon was a quiet, unassuming and gentle person to the point of appearing painfully shy, and was helpful, kind and loyal to his friends. He was always thoughtful and scholarly, and appeared absent‐minded, which he was not. Dean had a wicked, dry sense of humor that caught most people unawares. Most important is that he was always encouraging and generous to everyone turning to him for advice, and especially to young people.

Quotes from others about the person

• With the passing of Dean Amadon, we have lost one of the last members from the golden age of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History as well as one of the outstanding avian systematists of the twentieth century." - Walter J. Bock

Connections

Dean Amadon was married to Octavia Gardella Amadon. They have two daughters, Susan A. Wilt and Emily A. Bengelsdorf, and two grandchildren.

Father:

Arthur Amadon

Mother:

Mary Amadon

Wife:

Octavia Gardella Amadon

Daughter:

Susan Amadon Wilt

Daughter:

Emily Amadon Bengelsdorf

Friend:

Don Richard Eckelberry

Dean Amadon did field research in Africa, Australia, and the South Pacific. He spent weeks in the Galapagos Islands, and in Mexico with the wildlife artist Don R. Eckelberry.

colleague:

Frank Michler Chapman

After receiving his bachelor's in 1934, he started graduate study at Cornell, but could not finish because of the Depression and in 1937 was offered a job at the American Museum of Natural History by Frank M. Chapman to curate the egg collection.

colleague:

Ernst Mayr

Ernst Mayr took Dean under his wing, tutoring him in systematics, which resulted in a large series of papers such as generic revisions of the crows and the starlings and eventually in their joint 1951 paper on the classification of birds.