Contents
PeterCrowcroft's obituary in The Daily Telegraph, Nov. 30th, 1996
PeterCrowcroft's obituary in Acta Theriologica, 42 (3): 343-349, 1997
Didyou know Peter Crowcroft? Please contribute to this archive
Contents
PeterCrowcroft's obituary in The Daily Telegraph, Nov. 30th, 1996
PeterCrowcroft's obituary in Acta Theriologica, 42 (3): 343-349, 1997
Didyou know Peter Crowcroft? Please contribute to this archive
Towards the end of his life Peter Crowcroft beganto use the internet. Because of his teaching commitments at the Universityof Texas he did not make much use of the research capabilities of the web,nor of its possibilities for cheap regular communication with people livingacross the oceans. Nevertheless he was fascinated by its potential.
The internet has helped me to get in touch with severalpeople who knew my father intimately, whom I would never have contactedotherwise. Notably, his Polish colleagues, whom I traced as a result ofrunning a search on his surname. Luckily for me the surname is still comparativelyrare.
Peter Crowcroft was always planning to write morebooks - one which he referred to on several occasions was to have beena collection of his best pieces, some published, some not, which he intendedto call, 'Specimens', after his days collecting for museums. I hope topublish this work in due course but in the meantime intend to put someof the pieces on the internet in 'The Archive' section.
I would also like to record memories of those whoknew my father whether as friends, colleagues or students.
Simon Crowcroft,
Jersey, Channel Islands.
February 1998
under construction
William Peter Crowcroft, zoologist and zoo director
Getting onto the internet towards the end of his life, Peter Crowcroftchose ‘tas.zoo.man’ as his username, even though he had left Tasmania in1949 and had been out of zoos for almost ten years. Had he been allowedmore letters he might have called himself ‘mouse man’, too, as many inhis profession did; he might also have mentioned his dislike of mainlandAustralia, his regard for his adoptive U.S., or his pipe dream of returningto live in England.
He was born on October 27th, 1922, in Launceston, Tasmania. An earlyinterest in natural history led him to the University of Hobart and anM.Sc. in zoology, though his specialism - fish flukes - was far removedfrom the field in which he was to make his mark. Success in his studies- discovering several new species of trematode, with one named after him‘Coitocaecumparvum Crowcroft’, and, more usefully, perhaps, winning an overseas fellowshipfrom the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - was complementedby extra-curricular achievement: he became the tap-dance champion of hisstate and aka ‘Pete with the dizzy feet’ married Miss Tasmania in 1944.
The CSIR offered Crowcroft a choice of paths, either to continue hisstudy of trematodes ‘at some place to be decided’ or to join Charles Elton’sBureau of Animal Population in Oxford. In retrospect it can be seen tohave been a crucial decision, though like any other of his generation ofAustralians he would have plumped for Oxford even if it had meant switchingto the study of Sanskrit. His contact with the founder of scientific ecologyand the team of researchers at the BAP had a lasting influence on him.In Wytham Woods he studied the behaviour of shrews for his doctoral thesis,moving on to become a scientific officer for the Ministry of Agricultureand Fisheries. Post-war Britain could ill afford the damage that the housemouse was doing to its grain stocks, and Crowcroft was hired to investigate.Two books resulted from his work on small mammals, The Life of the Shrew(1957) and Mice All Over, hailed as ‘a classic’ on its publication in 1966.
Crowcroft spent most of his career as an administrator, first as a museumdirector - Curator of mammals at the British Museum of Natural History,1956, Director of the South Australian Museum, 1962, - then in 1968 hemade the jump to dealing with living exhibits instead of dead ones whenhe was appointed Director of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.
Though he was to rise further in his new profession (Director of SydneyZoo, 1975, Director of Metro Toronto Zoo, 1979) he was probably most effectivein Chicago where his innovations included arranging the purchase in 1971of the Brookfield Conservation Park in South Australia. This allowed himto do something for the hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus latifrons, at thattime considered a pest despite its dwindling populations, which he hadstudied in a large enclosure he built in his garden during his time inSouth Australia. As part of the international effort to protect endangeredspecies, he arranged animal transfers with zoos across the world, includingthe spectacled bears sent to the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, whosefounder, Gerald Durrell, he had known from his days at the British Museum.
Crowcroft’s career in zoo management ended in 1989 after five yearsat Salisbury Zoo in Maryland, when he took up a lecturing position at TheUniversity of Texas at Austin. He established a reputation as a superbteacher in his Ecology, Evolution and Society class, and his students acknowledgedhim as one of the most entertaining and knowledgeable teachers at the university.
The day-to-day running of zoos left Crowcroft very little time to pursuehis real goal: writing. True, he penned more than fifty scientific papers,including important research on marsupial mice and wombats, but his projectedbooks about the Polish zoologist, August Dehnel, and about Gavin Maxwell,whom he used to visit at Camusfearna, never got beyond the planning stage.However, a children’s book, Australian Marsupials appeared in 1970, andThe Zoo in 1978, while Elton’s Ecologists, a history of the BAP, was publishedin 1991.
Peter Crowcroft’s back collapsed in the middle of another of the gruellingsemesters he undertook at the University of Texas. The oldest member ofhis department he was under the greatest workload, partly because of financialnecessity, but mainly because he loved to teach. He was diagnosed as having multiple myeloma, or spinal cancer, and died at home less than a month later. Characteristically he had viewed his condition with scientific detachment,and had agreed to be part of a research study.
In Elton’s Ecologists he had described how he used to prepare piecesof cobalt 60 for Gillian Godfrey who was using a Geiger counter to studythe home range of voles: ‘I still have some mental discomfort when I recallcutting up the wire .. with two pairs of pliers, and rescuing bits thatflew off by using the screaming Geiger counter’ he wrote. Perhaps he wasright to have been alarmed.
He married three times, Ingebork Sikk (1944), Gillian Godfrey (1952),Lisette Whitcombe (1973) and is survived by six sons.
William Peter Crowcroft, zoologist, born October 27, 1922; died August10, 1996
By Simon Crowcroft
Peter Crowcroft Saviourof the hairy-nosed wombat and champion tap-dancer
Peter Crowcroft, who has died aged 73, was a much-travelled zoologistand a specialist in small mammals.
He first came to Britain from Tasmania soon after the Second World Warto join the Bureau of Animal Population in Oxford, headed by Charles Elton,the founder of scientific ecology.
Crowcroft studied shrews in Wytham Wood for his doctoral thesis, afterwhich he became a scientific officer for the Ministry of Agriculture. Headvised on how to limit the damage being done to Britain's grain stocksby mice.
In 1956 he was appointed Curator of Mammals at the British Museum, apost he held for six years. His research into small mammals yielded twobooks: The Life of the Shrew (1957) and Mice All Over (1966).
William Peter Crowcroft was born at Launceston, Tasmania, on Oct 271922.
He obtained an MSc in Zoology at the University of Hobart, Tasmania,for his study of fish fluke. He discovered several new kinds of trematode(parasitic unsegmented flat-worms with adhesive suckers), one of whichwas named after him - Coitocaecum parvum Crowcroft.
His energies were not exhausted by his academic work. He became Tasmania'stap-dancing champion, earning the nickname "Pete with the Dizzy Feet".Crowcroft moved to Oxford after winning an overseas fellowship from theCouncil for Scientific and Industrial Research.
In 1962 he returned to Australasia as director of the South AustralianMuseum. Six years later he moved to America and took up the directorshipof the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.
He was probably happiest in Chicago, from where he arranged the purchase,in 1971, of the Brookfield Conservation Park in South Australia. This enabledhim to help save from extinction the hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus latifrons,then considered a pest.As part of the international effort to protect endangeredspecies, he arranged animal transfers with zoos across the world: spectacledbears, for instance, were sent to the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trustwhose founder, Gerald Durrell, Cowcroft knew from the British Museum.
Crowcroft was Director of Sydney Zoo from 1975 and of Metro TorontoZoo from 1979. His last zoo post was at Salisbury, Maryland, from 1984to 1989. He then took up a lecturing position at the University of Texas.
Crowcroft wrote Elton's Ecologists (1991), The Zoo (1978) and a children'sbook, Australian Marsupials (1970).
He married three times, Ingebork Sikk (a former Miss Tasmania) in 1944,Gillian Godfrey in 1952 and Lisette Whitcombe in 1973; he had six sons.
The death of Peter Crowcroft on 10 August 1996 marks the end of a remarkablecareer. Peter was a mammalogist, ecologist, ethologist, and above all ascholar; his unorthodox professional life spanned three continents andencompassed full doses of research, administration, public service, andeducation. To al1 of these endeavors he brought competence, ingenuity,selflessness, vigor, and humor. His was a life about which there can befew regrets, except that it ended too soon. Bone marrow cancer caused anunexpected and precipitous decline in his health only a few months beforehis death.
Crowcroft was born in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, on 27 October1922. He attended the University of Tasmania from which he earned bothBachelor's (1944) and Master's (1948) degrees. Based on his MSc researchhe published 11 papers over the next few years on helminth parasites occurringmostly in Tasmanian fish. These included the description of a number ofnew species and one new genus of trematode Choanomyzus. With hisfirst wife Ingeborg and with an Overseas Fellowship, Peter then left forOxford University to pursue a Philosophiae Doctor's degree in the Bureauof Animal Population with Charles Elton and H.N. (Mick) Southern. It washere that he began his life long involvement with the ecology and behaviorof small mammals, particularly shrews and house mice Mus musculuas.He completed his degree in 1954
In 1952 Peter married Gillian K Godfrey, a fellow mammalologist andstudent at Oxford. From 1951 to 1956 he was employed as a Senior ScientificOfficer in the Infestation Control Division of the Ministry of Agricultureand Fisheries, London. In this capacity he worked on the control of housemice in agriculture. Apparently disillusioned by the bureaucratic inefficienciesof government work and the decline in the intellectual challenges of hisresearch (R.J. Berry, pers. comm.), he resigned to accept a position asPrinciple Scientific Officer in the Mammal Section of the British MuseumNatural History). He served in this capacity from 1956 to 1961, and itwas during this time that he made a number of collecting trips to the formerSouthern Rhodesia and also initiated his long association with Polish science.He made numerous trips to Poland between 1959 and 1961, and in August –September 1960 he attended the first Symposium Theriologicum held in Brno,a conference which later evolved into the International Theriological Congresses.
Peter accepted in 1962 a position as Director of the South AustralianMuseum in Adelaide, a position he kept for six years (1968.) During thisperiod he became one of the founders of the Australian Mammal Society andwas engrossed in research on the hairy-nosed wombat Lasiorhinus latifrons.The museum prospered under his guidance, with a massive reorganizationof' its exhibit program and a general increase in the public's accessto its resources.
He was offered in 1968 the position of Director of' the Brookfield Zoo(Chicago) and President of the Chicago Zoological Society. Thus, beganthe North American and zoological garden portions of his career. In hisseven years at Brookfield he succeeded in rebuilding the zoo physicallyand financially, raising it once again to the front ranks of major Zoos.He kept his academic connections through an Adjunct Professorship in Zoologyat the University of Chicago. During this time he married Lisette Whitcombe,a native of South Australia. In 1975 he returned to Australia to managethe Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, and to build a new open-range zoo in Dubbo,New South Wales. Four years later (1979) he returned to North America asAssistant Director of the Metro Toronto Zoo and Honorary Professor in Zoologyat the University of Toronto, becoming Director of the Zoo in 1981.
At this stage in his life Peter felt motivated to become an Americancitizen so he searched for an appropriate position in the United States.In July 1983 he moved to Salisbury, Maryland, to become Director of theSalisbury Zoological Park (Fig. 2). Once again he succeeded in making majorimprovements in this small-city zoo, doubling its attendance and revenues.His goal of becoming a US citizen was achieved on 17 September 1987.
One of us (WZL) once asked Peter why he changed jobs so often. He saidthat his philosophy was to take on a job, give it his best effort, andthen once a positive impact was made, to move on to another opportunity.He was certainly true to his principle, although the intellectual challengeof new horizons was also likely to be a motivating factor.
In 1989, at the age of 67, Crowcroft began the university teaching phaseof his career. He moved to Austin, Texas, and joined the Department ofZoology at the University of Texas at Austin as a lecturer. He taught throughoutthe academic year and often in the summer as well. Sometimes he complainedthat he could not attend some professional meeting or other because hehad to work to support his family. His teaching efforts were challenging,but from all reports he rose magnificently the task. Not only did he enjoyit immensely, but both faculty and students praised his efforts proclaiminghim one of the most entertaining and knowledgeable teachers at the university.After Peter died, a graduate student wrote a lament in the student newspapersaying "He was one of the most wonderful people I have ever met ... Hewas, and still will be, a great inspiration to me." On more than one occasionhe commented on the pleasures and demands of this new vocation. For example,he mentioned how hard he had to work to learn modern molecular biologywhich, of course, did not exist when he was an undergraduate. He was stillteaching summer school when stricken with his fatal illness.
It is difficult to summarize such a diverse and successful career exceptto say that it took courage, energy, and diverse talents. Although researchwas a small part of it, he published at least 53 papers including six books.Three books were semi-popular accounts of his investigations on shrews,house mice, and moles (the last with his second wife Gillian). A smallbook on Australian marsupials was published in 1970. Another book grewout of his experiences as director of zoos and reportedly prompted MickSouthern to remark that if Crowcroft could make managing zoos so interestinghe would be the proper person to write a history of the Bureau of AnimalPopulation at Oxford (Crowcroft 1991: xi). With Charles Elton's encouragement,this was the subject of his last book: "Elton's Ecologists, a History ofthe Bureau of Animal Population" (Crowcroft 1991). He was planning to writeat least two additional books, one on his adventures in Africa and oneon Geoffrey Watkins Smith, a British zoologist who worked extensively inTasmania but was killed in World War I.
Crowcroft's first papers on mammals were two notes in the Journal ofMammalogy in 1951 about live trapping shrews and keeping them in captivity.These papers, along with those of A. Dehnel and 0. P. Pearson, did muchto launch the modern study of shrew biology from the then prevailing mystiquethat shrews were physically weak creatures prone to die of fright. At thistime August Dehnel (Bialowieza) was engaged in extremely important pioneeringwork on shrews, publishing four major papers between 1949 and 1952 (Pucek1964). Because Dehnel described rather surprising discoveries about seasonalchanges in shrew morphology, and possibly because his results were publishedin Polish, Crowcroft (and other shrew biologists did not at first takethem seriously. Although these papers had summaries in English or Germanthe summaries deteriorated in quality and length through the series, thefirst being excellent. Each of the three English summaries contains mistranslationsof "over-wintering" to "hibernation" (or similar term term), and it ispossible that this contributed to a disbelief in Dehnel's findings. However,Dehnel's comprehensive understanding of shrew life history is readily apparentto anyone who examines these classic papers. When Peter published his firstbook 'The life of the shrew" in 1957 he failed to reference Dehnel's contributions.However, after he and others had corroborated Dehnel's findings (Pucek1955, 1957, Cabon 1956, Schubarth 1958, Crowcroft and Ingles 1959), andafter he visited Dehnel, he realized his unfortunate mistake. 5ubsequently,Crowcroft and Dehnel planned joint research projects (Crowcroft 1964),but Dehnel's premature death (1962) prevented their fruition. Subsequently,Crowcroft paid tribute Dehnel’s contribution at every opportunity; see,for example his dedication to him of his book ‘Mice all over', (Crowcroft1966).
At about the same time that Peter visited Dehnel he also met KazimierzPetrusewicz (Lidicker 1984) at Oxford which also led to a series of fruitfulinteractions (Andrzejewski et al. 1959, Andrzejewski 1984). Hisinteractions with both men as well as many other Polish scientists spawnedhis life-long interest in Polish mammalogy and ecology. Much later (1985)he was one of the prime movers in the establishment of The Dehnel~PetrusewiczMemorial (Crowcroft 1987), which continues to assist Polish mammalogistsand ecologists in attending international meetings, particularly the InternationalTheriological Congresses. The Fund has an executive committee and PolishAdvisory Committee, latter providing advice on the disbursement of funds.Peter served as secretary/treasurer of' this Fund until June 1995. Oneof his frustrating but eventually successful tasks during this period wasachieving tax exempt status for the organization.
Crowcroft's involvement with the D-P Fund was but one example of theservice--orientation he exemplified throughout his life. Helping organisationsto do their job better, assisting colleagues, and inspiring students wereall central themes in his life's work. His views about the role of zoosand his writing of semi-popular books and articles further signaled hisconnections with humanity at large. He was active in the cause of conservation;one tangible result of this was the purchase in 1971 by the BrookFieldZoo of a property in South Australia now known as the Brookfield ConservationPark, in an effort to preserve habitat for the hairy-nosed wombat. Asidefrom his memberships in professional organizations like the American Societyof Mammalogists, the Australian Mammal Society, and the British MammalSociety, the other organization that had special meaning for Peter wasthe Zoological Society of London. He tried to attend meetings of its ZoologicalClub as often as possible. These kept him in touch with his British intellectualroots (as well as with miscellaneous nomadic colleagues from around theworld), and also served as opportunities for him to visit his three sonswho lived in Britain.
Peter Crowcroft is survived by his wife Lisette and by six sons: PeterJr, James, Simon, Christopher, Paul, and Noah. To all of us he leaves thelegacy of a life of scholarship, public service, and achievement, imbuedwith high standards and highlighted with elegance in verbal and writtenexposition, with good humour and with enthusiasm and vitality for all hisendeavours.
W.Z Lidicker, Jr., and Z. Pucek.
