Background

Richard Eakin was born on May 5, 1910, in Florence, Colorado. However, he grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was a son of Marshall and Mary Elizabeth Eakin.

Education

Richard Eakin studied at high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1927 he entered the University of Tulsa as he planned to go into the clergy. However, in 1929 he moved to Berkeley and entered the University of California. In 1931 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. He continued his zoological research and in 1935 received a Doctor of Philosophy degree.

Career

Richard Eakin started his career as a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratories of embryologists Otto Mangold and Nobel laureate Hans Spemann. In 1936 he took up a post of an instructor of zoology at the University of California and soon became a professor. Eakin also worked as assistant dean at the College of Letters and Science. He held this post from 1940 to 1943. From 1942 to 1948 he held a post of Chairman of the Department of Zoology and took the same post in 1952. Eakin retired in 1977 and was honored with the Berkeley Citation. However, he continued to give lectures until 1988. He also taught embryology at Tougaloo College, Talladega College, and Tuskegee University.

Richard Eakin conducted research on animal eyes and photoreceptor cells, especially the parietal eye (the so-called "third eye") and associated pineal gland of vertebrates. In 1973, he wrote a monograph, The Third Eye. In 1975, he published a book, Great Scientists Speak Again, where he outlined his lecture scripts and costume ideas. Eakin also authored or co-authored over 200 scientific papers.

Achievements

• Richard Eakin was known as an American zoologist and professor, who was famous for his books The Third Eye and Great Scientists Speak Again. He was recognized for his teaching manner, as he portrayed famous scientists during his lectures.
  
  Richard Eakin received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953, and the Boston Museum of Science's Walker Prize in 1976. In 1963, he was the first recipient of Berkeley's Senior Citation for Distinguished Teaching and in 1968 received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Associated Students of the University of California.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Great Scientists Speak Again

    (Six great biologists come to life in theis book based on ...)

    1975
  • Vertebrate Embryology 1973
  • The Future Is Watching: A History of the First 125 Years of First Congregational Church of Berkeley 1999

Religion

Richard Eakin was a member of the First Congregational Church of Berkeley for over 60 years. He said that matters of faith and science should be kept separate.

Views

Richard Eakin often gave his lectures in character, dressing in costume and speaking in character to entertain and inform his students. He portrayed such scientists as Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, and Gregor Mendel. It usually involved elaborate wigs, makeup, costumes, and props, aided by professional makeup artists and drama teachers.

Membership

Richard Eakin was elected president of the Western Society of Naturalists in 1949 and American Society of Zoologists in 1975 He also was a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences for 52 years.

Connections

Richard Eakin married Mary Mulford on August 8, 1935. They had three children. Mary Mulford died in 1980 and Richard Eakin remarried Barbara Nichols.

Father:

Marshall Eakin

Mother:

Mary Elizabeth Eakin

late-wife:

Mary Mulford

Mary Mulford worked as a Berkeley professor of forestry.

Wife:

Barbara Nichols

Barbara Nichols worked as a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.