Harold Jefferson Coolidge Jr.

This article is about the zoologist. For the lawyer and father of this one, see Harold Jefferson Coolidge Sr.

Harold Jefferson Coolidge Jr. (January 15, 1904[1] – February 15, 1985[2]) was an American zoologist and a founding director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as well as of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).[3]

Early life

Coolidge was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father Harold Jefferson Coolidge Sr. (1870–1934) was a brother of Archibald Cary Coolidge and Julian Coolidge. Coolidge was also a descendant of Thomas Jefferson, through Jefferson's daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph.

Coolidge studied at Milton Academy and at the University of Arizona before entering Harvard. Originally, he had wanted to become a diplomat, like his uncle Archibald Cary Coolidge, but he soon turned to biology, specializing in primatology.[4] After getting a B.S. from Harvard in 1927, he worked as curator at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Career

Coolidge participated in the Harvard Medical Expedition to Africa in 1926/27 to Liberia and the Belgian Congo, from where he brought back a large gorilla[5] that is still on display at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.[6] In 1929 he published "A revision of the genus Gorilla", which forms the basis of the modern taxonomy of the genus Gorilla.[7]

Coolidge participated in the Kelley-Roosevelt Expedition to Asia in 1928/29,[5] and in 1937, he organized and led the Asiatic Primate Expedition through northwest Tonkin and northern Laos to study gibbons.[5]

Coolidge also studied at the University of Cambridge, England.[8] In 1933, he published the first detailed account of bonobos, elevating them to species rank (Pan paniscus). Ernst Schwarz had already published in 1929 a brief paper on them and had classified them as the subspecies Pan satyrus paniscus, based on a skull from the Belgian Congo discovered at a museum at Tervuren, Belgium. In 1982, twenty years after Schwarz's death, Coolidge claimed to have discovered that skull first and to have been "taxonomically scooped" by Schwarz.[9][10]

Public service

During World War II, Coolidge served in the OSS,[2] where he developed, amongst other things, a chemical shark repellent,[1] overseeing Julia Child, who worked as his executive assistant on the project.[11] He was awarded the Legion of Merit in 1945.[1]

After the war, he became director of the Pacific Science Board of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a post he held until 1970. He was also a member of the U.S. delegation at the conference in Fontainebleau in France where the International Union for Conservation of Nature was founded, and was elected its first vice-president. From 1966 to 1972, he served as IUCN president.[1] In 1961, he was also one of the founding directors of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF),[3] and a WWF International Board member from 1971 to 1978.[1] In 1980, Coolidge was awarded the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize for his work in nature conservation,[8] one of many awards he got throughout his career.[1]

Personal life

He died at the hospital in Beverly, Massachusetts of complications after a fall[2] and was buried at Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.[12]

Selected publications

  • Coolidge, H.J.: "A revision of the genus Gorilla", Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, vol 50, pp. 293–381, Harvard University 1929.
  • Coolidge, H.J.: "Pan paniscus. Pigmy chimpanzee from south of the Congo river", American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 18(1), pp. 1–59; July/September 1933. Contains a translation of Schwarz's earlier report.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f IUCN: Announcement: The Harold Jefferson Coolidge Memorial Medal 2008 Archived 2012-10-08 at the Wayback Machine, URL retrieved 2011-01-21.
  2. ^ a b c The New York Times, obituary: "Harold Coolidge, Expert on Exotic Mammals", February 16, 1985. URL retrieved 2011-01-21.
  3. ^ a b Aldrich, James L.; Blackburn, Anne M.: "Tribute to Harold J. Coolidge", The Environmentalist 5(2), 1985, pp. 83–84. ISSN 0251-1088.
  4. ^ Talbot, Lee M.: "Dedication to Dr. Harold J. Coolidge", The Environmentalist 2(4), 1982, pp. 281–282. ISSN 0251-1088.
  5. ^ a b c Goldberg, Carey: "Filmmakers Study a Man Who Studied the Apes", The New York Times, March 23, 1999. URL retrieved 2011-01-22.
  6. ^ Harvard Magazine, November/December 2007: Portrait: Janet Browne. URL retrieved 2011-01-22.
  7. ^ Stumpf, R. M.; Polk, J. D.; Oates, J. F.; et al., "Patterns of diversity in gorilla cranial morphology", pp. 35–61 in Taylor, A.B; Goldsmith, M.L. (eds.): Gorilla Biology, Cambridge University Press 2002. ISBN 0-521-79281-9. Here p. 35.
  8. ^ a b Hughes-Evans, David: "Profile of Harold Jefferson Coolidge", The Environmentalist 1(1), 1981, pp. 65–74. ISSN 0251-1088.
  9. ^ de Waal, Frans: "Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape", University of California Press, 1997, p. 6. ISBN 0-520-20535-9. URL retrieved 2011-01-22.
  10. ^ Herzfeld, Chris: "L'invention du bonobo", Bull. Hist. Épistém. Sci. Vie 14(2), 2007, pp. 139–162. (article in French). URL retrieved 2011-01-22.
  11. ^ "Julia Child and the OSS Recipe for Shark Repellent". CIA - News & Information. Archived from the original on August 13, 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  12. ^ Monticello Association, "Persons Buried at the Monticello Graveyard, 1773 - 1997". Archived from the original on September 27, 2008. Retrieved 2012-11-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). URL last accessed 2012-11-15.