[Coral-List] Passing of Jack Randall

[Andrew J. Brooks]

We have lost a true legend.  My condolences to Jack's family as well as 
to those who knew him, dove with him, had the good fortune to 
collaborate with him or just appreciated his incredible and significant 
contributions to the field.  How many of us have sent underexposed, 
fuzzy photos of some small, non-descript fish to Jack confident that he 
would be able to identify the subject to species or make a determination 
that the individual photographed represented a previously undescribed 
species. He will be missed by many.

With regards,
Andrew

On 4/29/2020 6:18 AM, Luiz Rocha via Coral-List wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone,
>
> It is with a heavy and sad heart that I report the passing of Jack Randall. I don't think Jack requires introduction, but just to keep it short, if it wasn't for him, modern ichthyology would look very different. He was a true pioneer and started diving very early (late 50s, early 60s), which gave him access to hundreds of underscribed reef fish species. He is most known for his taxonomic contributions (he described almost 1,000 species), but also wrote many important papers on reef fish ecology, behavior and biogeography. He was very generous with his time and my first interactions with him were in the late 90s when he carefully reviewed what became my first international paper, the description of Haemulon squamipinna in Copeia.
>
> I will tell you my funny story about him, so please share yours (I know there are many). During the ASIH conference in La Paz, Mexico in 2002 I had the distinct privilege of diving with him. But before we got in the water we had to get on a dive boat, and when we were booking our dive, the dive shop obviously wanted to see our dive certifications. I showed them my PADI card and he pulled out his YMCA dive card that was printed in the 1960s! The instructor at the dive shop had never seen one before and didn't want to let him dive! Lucky for me, I reacted quickly and saw that the book shelf at the dive shop had several of his books, so I pulled the books and pointed out to them that the person in the card and the one in the book were the same! And that's how I went diving with legendary Jack Randall.
>
> He passed away on the night of April 26 peacefully in his house with his family.
>
> Thanks and stay safe,
>
> Luiz
>
> Luiz A. Rocha, PhD
> Associate Curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology
> California Academy of Sciences
> p. 415.379.5370
> f.  415.379.5731
> LRocha at calacademy.org
> Academic Website
>
> 55 Music Concourse Drive
> Golden Gate Park
> San Francisco, CA 94118
>
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-- 
Andrew J. Brooks, Ph. D.
(805) 893-7670 (Office)
(805) 570-3453 (Cell)

Marine Science Institute
Building 520
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA  93106-6150

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