Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Ripley, S(idney) Dillon II (United States 1913-2001)
museology, ornithology

S. Dillon Ripley was one of the twentieth century's outstanding figures in the areas of museology, ornithology and conservation. The recipient of fifteen honorary doctorates and countless awards and prizes, Ripley will be remembered by future generations for his dynamic leadership at the Smithsonian Institution (which under his guidance added eight new museums, tripling its visitation rate), and as an international advocate for conservation. He was also an ornithologist of considerable renown, especially as a student of the birds of South and Southeast Asia. His hundreds of writings on natural history include much technical matter, but also several books and various articles catering to a more popular readership.

--born in New York City, on 20 September 1913.
--1927: travels to India and Tibet
--1936: B.A., Yale University
--1936: takes part in zoological expedition to New Guinea
--1942: made an elective member of the American Ornithologists' Union
--1942-1945: serves in Southeast Asia for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
--1943: Ph.D., Harvard University
--1946-1964: teaching at Yale University under various ranks
--1950: Fulbright fellow
--1951: made a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union
--1954: Guggenheim fellow
--1958-1982: president, International Council for Bird Preservation
--1959-1964: director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University
--1961: publishes his Synopsis of the Birds of India and Pakistan
--1964: publishes his The Land and Wildlife of Tropical Asia
--1964-1984: Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
--1966: awarded the gold medal of the New York Zoological Society
--1968-1974: publishes his Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan in ten volumes, with S. Ali
--1969: publishes his The Sacred Grove; Essays on Museums
--1977: publishes his Rails of the World
--1981: made chairman of the U.S. board of directors of the World Wildlife Fund
--1985: receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom
--dies at Washington, D.C., on 12 March 2001.

--The Auk, Vol. 119(4) (2002): 1110-1113.
--Smithsonian, Vol. 32(2) (May 2001): 16.
--Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 147(3) (2003): 297-302.
--Ibis, Vol. 144(3) (2002): 550.