Background
Fitch was born in Utica, New New York Growing up, he had a keen interest in all the reptiles he could find on his father"s 116 acre (05 km²) ranch.
herpetologist university professor Zoologist
Fitch was born in Utica, New New York Growing up, he had a keen interest in all the reptiles he could find on his father"s 116 acre (05 km²) ranch.
In 1933 and a Doctor of Philosophy in zoology in 1937.
When he was a year old, the family moved to Medford in the Rogue Valley in Oregon. He recounts that he especially liked snakes, because "the real bonus was in seeing horrified adults scatter."
In 1926, he enrolled at the University of Oregon, but switched to University of California Berkeley for his graduate work. He obtained his Master of Arts From 1938 to 1947, he worked for the United States. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as a field biologist in the department of pest control, studying rodents such as squirrels, gophers, and kangaroo rats.
He served from 1941 to 1945 in the Medical Corps as an army pharmacist, stationed initially in the United Kingdom, then France, and finally in Germany.
In 1948, Fitch accepted a position as Superintendent of the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation and instructor of zoology, where he could again pursue his studies of snakes and lizards. He became assistant professor in 1949 and full professor in 1958.
From 1965 on, he did extensive field work in Costa Rica, Mexico, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. In 1976, he took up field work in Nicaragua and succeeded in getting a five-year-plan for Ctenosaura conservation, which was instituted in the 1980s.
He retired in 1980, but was still an active herpetologist as of 2006, collecting snakes and publishing papers.