I saw it because I was looking down. The goal of this expedition was to study the area's undersea fauna utilizing dredging and helmet diving, and Beebe and his team were surprised by the diversity of animals that they encountered there. [20] In 1899, although he had completed all of the required courses for a degree in science from Columbia except for mathematics, he decided to forgo his studies in favor of an invitation from Osborn to work at the New York Zoological Park which was about to open. [187], Beebe continued to conduct marine research after 1934, but he felt that he had seen what he wanted to see using the Bathysphere and that further drives were too expensive for whatever knowledge he gained from them to be worth the cost. This time he succeeded at capturing a hoatzin, the bird that he had narrowly missed during his earlier trip to Guiana, although he was unable to keep it alive for the zoo during the trip back to New York. [68] By this point Beebe was beginning to conflict with Horsfall, who was unaccustomed to such expeditions. William Beebe was more famous in the United States than any other American naturalist before the days of television. To some men, the jungle is a tangled place of heat and danger. [66], After crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the RMS Lusitania to London, where they gathered the supplies they would need for their expedition, Beebe and his team traveled across the Mediterranean Sea to Egypt, through the Suez Canal, and across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon, where they began their task of documenting the native wildfowl. [75] In Burma Beebe succumbed temporarily to a bout of depression, and it was several days before he was able to resume working or continue the expedition. [9] Although Beebe did not formally drop his first name "Charles" until 1915, before attending high school he was already commonly known as "William Beebe", as he would be known from this point onward. WILBUR "BILL" BEEBE | Obituary | Pittsburgh Post Gazette WILBUR "BILL" BEEBE December 10, 1943 - March 4, 2022 Age 78, of Plum Boro, passed away peacefully on March 4, 2022. Published on September 4, 2020. Although some sources have described him as an only child,[3] he had a younger brother named John who died in infancy. [90], Blair's departure came as a shock to Beebe, and he was severely depressed for more than a year afterward. [158] Bermuda's governor Louis Bols introduced Beebe to Prince George, who was fascinated by Beebe's books, and Prince George persuaded Beebe to take him helmet diving. [127] Beebe continued to battle depression during this trip to Kartabo, both over his earlier loss of Blair, and over the death of his mother Nettie, who had died shortly before the beginning of the expedition. It is now once again actively involved in research and an important gathering place for scientists. Following his Bathysphere dives, Beebe returned to the tropics and began to focus his study on the behavior of insects. [36], In December 1903, to avert another bout of Beebe's throat ailment, Hornaday sent him on an expedition to Mexico which would last until the following April. Guestbook (3) Follow story. [168], From 1930 to 1934, Beebe and Barton used the Bathysphere to conduct a series of dives of increasing depth off the coast of Nonsuch Island, becoming the first people to observe deep-sea animals in their native environment. In response to Beebe's dismissal, Horsfall retorted that he had been ill-treated by Beebe from the beginning of the expedition and that his subsequent actions had been for the express purpose of revenge. He was born in. [47] With his many writings about the dangers of environmental destruction, Beebe helped to raise public awareness about this topic. In return, Beebe would pay for other expenses such as chartering a ship to raise and lower the sphere, and as the owner of the sphere, Barton would accompany Beebe on his expeditions in it. [169] The record set by the deepest of these, to a depth of 3,028 feet (923m) on August 15, 1934, lasted until it was broken by Barton in 1949. He attended and graduated from Hennessey High School. [143] While A Monograph of the Pheasants had been a factual account of this expedition, Pheasant Jungles was a somewhat fictionalized account, in which Beebe altered some aspects of his experience to appeal to a wider audience. [95], In 1916, Beebe traveled to Georgetown in pursuit of his earlier goal of establishing a permanent field research station in Guiana. After failing to find such evidence, Heilmann ultimately rejected Beebe's Tetrapteryx hypothesis, and this remained the consensus among ornithologists for the next several decades. To plant a tree in memory of William D Beebe . The establishment of the Kalacoon research station enabled Beebe to research the ecology of the surrounding jungle in far more detail than had been possible during his earlier expeditions. [207] During his work at Rancho Grande, Beebe broke his leg in a fall from a ladder, and the forced immobility which resulted from having his leg in a cast presented him with a new opportunity for observing the area's wildlife. Although some sources have described him as an only child, [3] he had a younger brother named John who died in infancy. [27] The following year he was promoted from assistant curator to the rank of a full curator, a post he held until 1918. Born August 7, 1944 in Manito to Rollin A. and Rosie B. During this expedition Beebe captured 40 live birds for the zoo, belonging to 14 different species. Burial is in the Cimarron Valley Cemetery, Lacey, OK under the direction of Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home. [114], During the course of his career, Beebe authored over 800 articles and 21 books, including his four-volume pheasant monograph. [103] With his new position, Beebe no longer had the duty of caring for the zoo's animals, freeing him to devote himself fully to his writing and research. Appalled by the destruction, Beebe finally rented his station at Nonsuch Island to a military contractor and returned to New York. [205], Rancho Grande was located at a mountain pass in a branch of the Andes known as the Venezuelan Coastal Range, which was an important migration route for butterflies, and the station proved very lucrative in the study of insects. Elswyth explained in a magazine interview that she was uncomfortable on Beebe's expeditions, so the two of them had agreed that they would keep their careers separate from their private lives. In a second study, Beebe performed the same task for a much larger area of jungle, approximately a quarter-mile (0.4 km) square. [114][263] This was particularly significant in the area of conservation, of which he was one of the most important early advocates. View Source Share Save to Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Memorials Region North America USA Oklahoma [4][5] Early in his life, his family moved to East Orange, New Jersey, where he began to acquire both his fascination with the natural world and his tendency to record everything he saw. He was 69 years old and. [176] Although Beebe and Barton performed no dives in 1933, their work gathered a large amount of publicity when the Bathysphere was displayed in a special exhibit for the American Museum of Natural History, and later at the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago, where they shared the fair's Hall of Science with Auguste Piccard. Beebe admired Roosevelt's skill as a field naturalist as well as his advocacy of conservation, and Roosevelt's fame made his support highly valuable in Beebe's scientific endeavors. [211] Beebe described his experiences at Rancho Grande in his 1949 book High Jungle, which was the last of Beebe's major books. [236], William Beebe died of pneumonia at Simla on June 4, 1962. [209], Although Beebe and his team enjoyed rewarding seasons at Rancho Grande in 1945 and 1946, they did not return there in 1947. For his contributions to science, he was elected a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [59][60] Beebe summarized this expedition in his book Our Search for a Wilderness, which was enthusiastically well-reviewed. Although it was intended as an expedition for the zoo, Beebe described it as "our third honeymoon this year". [202] One important study which resulted from this region was the first documentation of rhinoceros beetles using their horns in competition between males, proving that their horns were an adaptation for sexual selection rather than for defense against predators. [91], By the end of 1914, Beebe's pheasant monograph was essentially complete in the manuscript. [251] One particular point of disagreement was Beebe's forgetfulness about returning books which he had borrowed from the Zoological Society's Library, which would occasionally go missing for years as a result. Charles William Beebe was born in Brooklyn, New York, son of the newspaper executive Charles Beebe. [108] Beebe's duties as curator were passed to Lee Crandall, the former Assistant Curator who had worked under Beebe,[109] although Crandall continued to rely on Beebe for help treating illness in birds, and caring for the exotic birds brought back from Beebe's expeditions. Using Kalacoon as his base of operations, Beebe performed a novel type of study: methodically dissecting a small area of jungle, and all of the animals which inhabit it, from the top of the canopy to below the ground. After Elswyth died in 1984, Jocelyn donated Beebe's papers to the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton University's Firestone Library. Arcturus, at 280ft (85.3m), was considerably larger than the Noma and was capable of being at sea for extended periods of time. [77][78], The last portion of Beebe's journey took him to China, from which they made an unplanned visit to Japan to escape a riot as well as a surge of bubonic plague. [147] These dives involved several technological innovations: a watertight brass box which could be used to house a camera for underwater photography, and a telephone which was incorporated into the diving helmet, allowing the diver to dictate observations to someone on the surface instead of having to take notes underwater. William Beebe, in full Charles William Beebe, (born July 29, 1877, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.died June 4, 1962, Simla Research Station, near Arima, Trinidad), American biologist, explorer, and writer on natural history who combined careful biological research with a rare literary skill. Barton was convinced that Beebe's design for a diving vessel would never be capable of withstanding the extreme pressure of the deep ocean,[165] and with the help of a friend who arranged a meeting with Beebe, proposed an alternative design to him. The divorce was granted on August 29, 1913, after Blair had spent the minimum requirement of six months as a resident in Reno. [31][87] Although newspapers at the time reported Blair's accusations uncritically, with headlines such as "Naturalist was cruel",[88] modern biographers consider it more likely that Blair resorted to hyperbole to make a divorce case. [238][239] According to his wishes, he was buried in Mucurapo Cemetery in Port of Spain. Beebe and his team began work there in 1945, staying as guests of the Venezuelan government. The reason they gave in their annual report was that the previous two seasons had produced so much material that they needed an additional year to analyze it, but in reality, this was more the result of insufficient funding as well as the unstable state of Venezuelan politics. He was the coinventor of the bathysphere. [1][225] Beebe's last major expedition occurred in 1955, retracing the route he had taken during his pheasant expedition 45 years earlier, with the intention of discovering how the populations he had previously studied were faring in response to human encroachment. [28] He then went on to serve as an honorary curator from 1919 to 1962. [106] The best-known of these accounts is provided by the opening paragraph of his 1918 book Jungle Peace: After creeping through slime-filled holes beneath the shrieking of swift metal; after splashing one's plane through companionable clouds three miles above the little jagged, hero-filled ditches, and dodging other sudden-born clouds of nauseous fumes and blasting heart of steel; after these, one craves thoughts of comfortable hens, sweet apple orchards, or the ineffable themes of opera. Obituary of William C. Beebe. [101] During a second trip to Kalacoon while his wrist healed, Beebe was further devastated to discover that due to wartime demand for rubber, the entire jungle surrounding the house had been clear-cut to make room for rubber trees. He graduated from Fremont High School in 1947, after returning from an enlistment with the U.S. Navy. [282], Now under the management of the Asa Wright Nature Center, the William Beebe Tropical Research Station has gradually been renovated. William Thomas Beebe. [35], By the end of 1903, at the age of 26, Beebe had published more than thirty-four articles and photographs in the past year. [61], In December 1909, businessman and philanthropist Anthony R. Kuser proposed to the zoo that Beebe be allowed to go on a voyage around the world to document the world's pheasants, which would be financed by Kuser. With the help of a letter of recommendation from Roosevelt, he was given the duty of flying aerial photography planes over German gun emplacements. [233] However, by 1959 his strength had lessened enough that long hikes and tree climbing were no longer practical for him, and he contented himself with work that could be conducted in the laboratory, such as dissecting birds' nests to analyze their method of construction. Born December 7, 1930 in Dover he was a son of the late William "Earl" and Bessie Herron Beebe.An infant brother, William E. Beebe, also preceded him in death. After following several leads which came to nothing, his goal was realized when George Withers, who owned a rubber plantation on the Mazaruni River, offered him the use of a large house on his property for this purpose. [102][103] Combined with his earlier loss of Blair, the effect of losing Kalacoon plunged Beebe into depression. [278] However, because Jocelyn's research required her to travel north for extended periods, by 1965 she had little time to keep the station running. BEEBE, William Michael February 19, 1954 - August 19, 2016. [93] The reproduction of the illustrations themselves was to be handled by several companies in Germany and Austria. [92] Due to the elaborate nature of the book's color artwork, no American publisher was considered capable of reproducing it. Remembering the early studies of his own childhood, in which he had brought specimens to the American Museum of Natural History, he was happily working with them. [137] Beebe continued to perform helmet dives throughout his Galpagos expedition, documenting several previously unknown sea animals. To plant a tree in memory of William D Beebe, please visit Tribute Store . [120] Passing through the Sargasso Sea on the way to the Galpagos, Beebe was fascinated by the diversity of life that could be found in the sargassum weed floating on the surface and spent several days scooping the weed from the water to examine the creatures that lived in it. [226][227] Jocelyn accompanied him on this expedition for the purpose of documenting Asia's fiddler crabs. A MEMORIAL SERVICE will be held at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church 100 Argyle Street, Regina, Saskatchewan on Thursday, May 12, 2005 at 11:00am. This expedition was Beebe's introduction to the tropics, with which he developed a long-standing fascination. Connie McAfee Obituary. A Memorial Mass will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. [260], E. O. 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