Prof. Tim Crowe retires on 31 December 2013 after 40 years at the FitzPatrick Institute

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on 5 July 1948, Tim Crowe graduated with a BA biology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston in 1970 and an MSc for research on the taxonomy of Helmeted Guineafowl, Numida meleagris, at the University of Chicago in 1972. In 1977, Tim married Anna Teichert and, in 1979, they were blessed with a daughter, Kimberley Ann. Tim also has two sons by his first marriage.

Tim joined the FitzPatrick Institute in 1973 as a PhD student. At the Rooipoort nature reserve near Kimberley, he researched the demography, ecology, parasitology, ecophysiology and sustainable hunting of Helmeted Guineafowl for his PhD which he received in 1978. Tim’s career at the Fitztitute focused on the evolution of gamebirds and gamebird management. He was appointed as a junior lecturer in 1976, promoted to lecturer in 1978 and to senior lecturer in 1979. During 1981-1982, he visited the American Museum of Natural History, New York, where he interacted with top systematists who introduced him to phylogenetics and biogeography which took center stage in his research during the 1980s.

Tim was elected a Fellow of the Willi Hennig Society of International Systematics in 1984, and in 1988 was promoted to Associate Professor and elected to the Pan-African Ornithological Congress Committee. Also in 1988, Tim helped to create the African Gamebird Research, Education and Development Trust to support the study of African gamebirds. During the next decade, Tim supervised numerous gamebird projects on the ecology and management of the Grey-winged Francolin Scleroptila africana (Rob Little - former Director of Conservation at WWF South African and currently Manager at the Fitztitute’s DST/NRF Centre of Excellence), Helmeted Guineafowl (Charles Ratcliffe, Lionel Pero and Luthando Maphasa), the Red-winged Francolin S. levaillantii and Swainson’s Spurfowl Pternistis swainsonii (Raymond Jansen), the Egyptian Goose Alopochen aegyptiacus (Michael Mangnall), the evolution of francolins and spurfowls (Paulette Bloomer) and on the ecology, reproduction and behaviour of Namaqua Sandgrouse Pterocles namaqua (Penn Lloyd). All this research culminated in the publication of a book, Gamebirds of Southern Africa.

In 1990, Tim founded the Evolutionary Discussion Group and edited ORIGIN, its newsletter. In 1996, Tim convened the 15th Willi Hennig Society meeting at UCT and was Associate Editor of Cladistics, the Society’s journal during 1997-2001. During 1999-2003, he was on the Editorial Board of Systematic Biology, the journal of the Society of Systematic Biologists. Tim was president of the Southern African Society for Systematic Biology during 2002-2003. He was also elected life member of the Committee of the International Ornithological Congress, and Vice-chairperson of its Scientific Programme Committee during1994-95.

During 1996-1998, Tim was elected president of the Wildlife Management Association of Southern Africa and during 1999-2002 he was a council member for the Southern Flagship Institution to transform and develop Cape Town-based museums funded by the national government. In 2003, Tim gave an address honouring the retirement of Dr Phillip Clancey, former director of the Durban Museum. Following the address, Tim suggested that Dr Clancey consider endowing a trust fund for research on the systematics of African birds in his will, which he did. During 2004-2005, Tim was elected Chairperson of the South African Biosystematics Initiative, and served on its Steering Committee until 2007. In 2004, Tim was the deputy leader of the successful application to the National Research Foundation and the Department of Science and Technology for the Fitztitute to become a national Centre of Excellence. In 2011, the Southern African Society for Systematic Biology presented Tim with a life-time achievement award for his “extraordinary contributions to systematics in southern Africa”.

In 2003, Tim was promoted to full Professor; and was elected a Fellow of UCT in 2007. Tim has supervised 33 MSc and 15 PhD graduates, published over 240 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and presented scientific papers at 82 conferences. Tim regards the measure of a scientist (which he calls academic Darwinian fitness) as more than just the quantity and quality of empirical publications. Additional criteria are the number of philosophical papers published; communication of research results at conferences; performance and employment success of graduate students; and service to discipline. Tim has a high academic Darwinian fitness, indeed, many of his former students address him as “dad”, and we wish him all the very best for his retirement years!