Obituary: Sydney Anderson (1927–2018)

Abstract

On 12 August 2018, the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) lost one of its giants of the latter half of the 20th century when Sydney Anderson quietly passed away at his home in Birmingham, Alabama, at the age of 91. "Syd," to his many friends and colleagues, was born on 11 January 1927 in Topeka, Kansas, to Robert Grant and Evelyn Fern (Hunt) Anderson (Fig. 1). He married Ratia "Justine" Klusmire on 5 August 1951 in Holton, Kansas, where Justine was raised. Three children were born to this marriage-Evelyn Lee Anderson Wheelhouse, who preceded Syd in death; Charles Sydney Anderson; and Laura Lynnette Anderson Dooley. Syd began his post-secondary education with three years (1946-49) at Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas, before matriculating at the University of Kansas (KU) to receive his B.A. in Zoology in 1950. He then completed his M.A. in 1952 and his Ph.D. in 1959 at KU under the direction of Professor E. Raymond Hall. Both his Master's thesis (Anderson 1952; citations appearing with a year date are from the Literature Cited) and dissertation dealt with the montane vole, with the title of his dissertation being "Evolution in the montane vole, Microtus montanus" (see Anderson 1959).Syd began his professional career at KU, where for four years (1955)(1956)(1957)(1958)(1959) he served as Assistant Curator in charge of mammals in the Museum of Natural History, and Instructor in the Department of Zoology while he was undertaking his Ph.D. degree work. In 1960, he took the position (1960)(1961)(1962)(1963)(1964) of Assistant Curator of Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History and progressed through the ranks to Associate Curator (1964( -1969( ) and Curator (1969( -1992. He served as chair of the department from 1974-1981, in which position he led a staff of long-serving mammalogical colleagues, including curators Richard Van Gelder, Karl Koopman, Guy Musser, Hobart Van Deusen, and curatorial assistant, Marie Lawrence. Upon his retirement, he became an emeritus curator, a title he held until his passing. Syd also served as an Adjunct Professor at the City University of New York, from 1969 to 1991, and at New York University in 1973.The breadth of Syd's professional scientific interests can be judged both by his publication record and by the societies that he joined as a life member in addition to the ASM-American Institute of Biological Sciences, American Ornithological Association, and the Southwestern Association of Naturalists (Charter Patron)-as well as the other societies in which he held memberships-AAAS (Fellow, 1963),

Cyclic oscillations in melanization within Hystrix porcupine quills

“…As a follow-on to that study the first question we addressed was-are the cyclic oscillations unique to baboons? A variety of specimens at the American Museum of Natural History were perused to find examples, facilitated by the recently deceased mammologist Sydney Anderson (Gardner et al, 2020). Another primate with multiple cycles of melanization was noted, the New World titi monkey Callicebus personatus that manifests this phenomenon near the termini of dorsal pelage hairs (AMNH Nos.…”