Raymond Andrew Paynter Jr. (29 November 1925 – 10 July 2003) was an American ornithologist and curator at the

Museum of Comparative Zoology A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(1961–1999).

Biography

Paynter was born in New York City where he was educated at

Cheshire Academy Cheshire Academy is a selective, co-educational college preparatory school located in Cheshire, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1794 as the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, it is currently the eleventh oldest boarding school in the United ...

and

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint e ...

(1946). He studied herring gull behavior on Kent Island while in college. He then began to collect birds from Mexico and joined

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

for his PhD with a thesis on the ''Ornithogeography of the Yucatan Peninsula''. He then collected birds for the Yale's

Peabody Museum of Natural History The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is among the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew O ...

and the Harvard

(MCZ) with partial sponsorship from

S. Dillon Ripley S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet. S may also refer to: History * an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics * Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s ...

, in Central America and in India, Pakistan and Nepal. His collecting career came to a bloody end in Ecuador in 1965, he and his wife Elizabeth Storer were attacked by a group of locals with machetes. His wife feigned dead with cuts on the scalps on hand while he was left for dead with a skull fracture and a half severed arm. A student escaped and was able to get help. The USS ''Hope'' which was stationed off the coast of Ecuador had a crew of doctors who were able to help treating the Paynters. Paynter became an assistant curator of birds at the MCZ in 1953 and was curator from 1961 until 1999. He was also a senior lecturer in biology at Harvard. He published books, monographs, gazetteers of South American birds and fifty research papers. He won the Elliott Coues Award for lifetime achievement in ornithology of the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

, with Melvin Traylor, for their ornithological gazetteers. He assisted

Ernst Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr (; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, philosopher of biology, and historian of science. His w ...

to produce the ''Check-list of Birds of the World''. He died on 10 July 2003 after a stroke.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paynter, Raymond Andrew Jr. 1925 births 2003 deaths American ornithologists American curators Bowdoin College alumni Harvard University faculty Cheshire Academy alumni Yale University alumni