Education
University of Utah.
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Willis John Gertsch
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He described over 1,000 species of spiders, scorpions, and other arachnids, including the Brown recluse spider and the Tooth cave spider. Gertsch was born in Montpelier, Idaho, on October 4, 1906. He earned a Master of Surgery from University of Utah in 1930, working under Ralph V. Chamberlin, and in 1935 a Doctor of Philosophy from University of Minnesota, although he had by then taken on a job at the American Museum of Natural History, and so earned his doctorate in absentia.
East. B. White consulted Gertsch before Charlotte"s Web was published to inquire about a spider he observed.
Gertsch was the one who informed White that the spider was a barn spider (Araneus cavaticus). The character Charlotte"s full name in the book is "Charlotte A. Cavatica.".
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Born
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Died
December 12, 1998 (aged 92)