Gilbert L. Voss (1918 – 23 January 1989) was an American conservationist and

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of top ...

. He was one of the main persons behind the establishment of

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is a Florida State Park located on Key Largo in Florida. It includes around of adjacent Atlantic Ocean waters. The park is roughly long and extends into the Atlantic Ocean along the prominent Hawk Cha ...

Key Largo, Florida Key Largo is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Monroe County, Florida, United States, located on the island of Key Largo in the upper Florida Keys. The population was 12,447 at the 2020 census, up from 10,433 in 2010. The ...

and he spoke out successfully against several proposed real estate developments that might have threatened the ecology of the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami a ...

Early life and education

Voss was born in

Hypoluxo, Florida Hypoluxo is a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The town was incorporated in 1955 and is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. It is home to the Hypoluxo Scrub Natural Area, which is a protected landscape. The po ...

, in 1918, the son of early

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

pioneers Captain Frederick C. Voss and his wife Lillie Pierce Voss, who was inducted into the

Florida Women's Hall of Fame The Florida Women's Hall of Fame is an honor roll of women who have contributed to life for citizens of the US state of Florida. An awards ceremony for the hall of fame was first held in 1982 and recipient names are displayed in the Florida State ...

in 2012. His father was a boat captain and steam engineer. Voss grew up on the water, sailing and fishing. Voss had two brothers, Frederick Jr. and Walter, both of whom were guides and captains in tuna and bill fishing tournaments throughout

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

and a doctorate from

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

Career

In 1951, Voss began his career at the

in 1951. From 1962 to 1973, he was chairman of the University of Miami's biology department. He was a research fellow at

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

, editor of the ''Bulletin of Marine Science'' and editor of ''Studies in Tropical Oceanography''. He was a professor at the university's

Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science The Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science is the University of Miami's academic and research institution for the study of oceanography, atmospheric sciences, atmospheric, and earth sciences. The Rosenstiel School is locat ...

when he retired in 1988. Voss published over 200 items, including 73 book reviews, 16 editorials, and 124 research papers on such diverse topics as cephalopods, fishes, crustaceans, botany, zoogeography, history of oceanography, anthropology, archaeology, fisheries, and marine and deep sea biology. He authored or co-authored descriptions of two new families or subfamilies, 6 new genera and more than 65 new species or subspecies. A

teuthologist Teuthology (from Ancient Greek, Greek τεῦθος, "Common Cuttlefish, cuttlefish, European squid, squid", and -λογία, ''-logy, -logia'') is the study of Cephalopod, cephalopods, which are members of the class Cephalopod, Cephalopoda in ...

, Voss "served the leading role in American cephalopod research for nearly 40 years".

So important is his influence on the resurgence of cephalopod systematic research, hardly a paper has been published in cephalopod systematics and zoogeography, and even other aspects of cephalopod biology and fisheries, that doesn't cite at least one paper published by Voss. This has been the case for nearly 4 decades and it will continue to be so for many decades into the 21st Century.

Voss authored the books ''Seashore Life of Florida and the Caribbean'' and ''Coral Reefs of Florida''. A species of swimming crab, ''Portunus vossi'', is named after him.

Personal life

Voss was married to Nancy A. Voss (1929–2020), a Research Professor Emeritus and Museum Director at the

.Voss, R.S. (2020)
Nancy A. Voss (1929–2020)
Cephalopod International Advisory Council. His son, Robert Voss, is the curator of the Department of Mammalogy on the Division of Vertebrate Zoology at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

References

External links

Committee for Research and Exploration: What We Fund
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voss, Gilbert L. 1918 births 1989 deaths 20th-century American zoologists American conservationists American oceanographers George Washington University alumni Teuthologists University of Miami alumni University of Miami faculty

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading

External links