1902

George Gaylord Simpson born at 9:15 a.m. on 16 June 1902 in Chicago, south of the Midway, to Joseph A. and Helen J. Simpson, their third child and first son. While still an infant the family moves briefly to Wyoming where his lawyer father is engaged in land speculation.

1903

George and his two sisters, Peg and Martha, and parents move to Denver.

1904

Anne Roe born in Denver.

1906

Family resides at 1048 Milwaukee St. in the Capitol Heights neighborhood of Denver where Simpson starts kindergarten at Clayton St. school. Father involved in irrigation investments in the West.

1910

Family resides at 2714 12th Ave. in Capitol Heights. Simpson contributes to parents' purchase of the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which he reads straight through.

1911

Family spends summer in California. In the fall, Simpson starts school in Piedmont, Calif., where family considers settling.

1912

Family returns to Denver after a year in California and resides at 1069 Milwaukee Ave.

1913

Family moves to 1149 Fillmore Ave.

1914

Simpson spends the first of two summers on Aunt Lil and Uncle Charlie Baldwin's farm in Blantyre, N.C., near Asheville. He graduates from elementary school at age 11, having completed 8 grades in 6 years, and enters East Denver Latin High School. Family lives at 1218 Columbine Ave.

1915

Simpson spends the second summer at North Carolina farm. He transfers to main branch of East Denver H.S. as a sophomore. Family moves again, to 1071 York Ave.

1916

Simpson has his appendix removed in spring; misses half-year of school, and works for Clason Map Co. in blueprint dept. for $4 per week. In the summer he works as swimming pool "key boy" at Eldorado Springs, outside of Denver.

1917

Simpson works with friend, Bob Roe, at father's gold mine in Alma, Colo. It is called the "4-J Mine," the J's referring to the first initial of the four partners. Simpson is almost killed by a runaway mining car atop a rock crusher at the mine.

1918

Simpson graduates from high school; his yearbook picture is captioned "Knowledge is more than equivalent to force," presumably contrasting his mental stature (large) to his physical size (small). He participates in the senior play and the Forum Debating Society. The high school was relatively large, with 49 faculty and more than 1000 students -- 263 in his senior class. After a second summer at the mine, he enters the Univ. of Colorado at Boulder, spends several months in the Student Training Corps, and is hospitalized with Spanish Influenza from which he recovers.

1919

After the end of his freshman at the university, Simpson's father loses the mine and the "family finances at lowest ebb ever." Simpson drops out of college and works briefly for his uncle in Chicago, then as errand boy at the Chicago Board of Trade. He moves on to the advertising dept. of the Cable Piano Co. and ushers at night at the opera. Later, he takes off for New Orleans with many detours on the way, eventually reaching the city by the following June. "Stayed for a while at Sam Crosby's place in Port Arthur, Texas, and worked for a canal-lock keeper."

1920

Reenters the Univ. of Colorado, waiting on tables for his meals. He begins his first courses in geology and paleontology, and collaborates in the founding of the college humor magazine, "Dodo," and becomes the Associate Editor. During the summer he is a guide at Rocky Mt. National Park and later a bellhop at the Grand Lake Lodge.

1921

Junior year at the university. In the summer he paints houses in Eagle, Colo. and builds trails in Holy Cross National Forest.

1922

Simpson transfers to Yale because his geology instructor, Arthur Tieje, tells him that that is the best place to study geology and paleontology. Yale faculty includes Richard Swann Lull, Carl Dunbar, Adolph Knopf, and Chester Longwell. Simpson starts to bone up on biology to complement his paleontological studies.

1923

Contrary to Yale"s regulations, Simpson secretly marries Lydia Pedroja, from Buffalo, Kansas, on 2 Feb. 1923. To meet Yale graduation requirements, he goes to France for the summer with Lydia to learn French. He starts Yale graduate school in September on a Dana Fellowship. Daughter Helen is born on 22 December in New Haven. (Anne Roe, his future second wife, receives her B.A. from Denver University.)

1924

Simpson suggests to R.S. Lull, his graduate advisor,that he wants to work on Mesozoic mammals in Yale's Marsh Collection for his dissertation. Lull says no: "Much too important for a graduate student." In May Simpson goes to Texas as field assistant for William Diller Matthew of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He finds his first significant fossil, a skeleton of the Pliocene "Equus simplicidens." After Matthew returns to the AMNH, Simpson goes on to New Mexico to work in the Santa Fé Formation of Miocene-Pliocene age with C. Falkenbach, a museum preparator. They find an excellent fossil specimen of "Hemicyon," the dog-bear, for amateur paleontologist and AMNH donor, Childs Frick, who bankrolled the New Mexico expedition. In the fall, Simpson decides on Mesozoic mammals for his dissertation; given Simpson's successes in the field, Lull agrees. Simpson's graduate work supported by the Marsh Publication Fund Fellowship.

1925

In March, Simpson's first two abstracts are published in Geological Society of America Bulletin on triconodonts and on the Santa Fé Fm. He spends the summer at Yale's Peabody Museum working on his thesis. In August his first published article, on American triconodonts, appears in August in the American Journal of Science. In December, Simpson gives his first formal talks at the New Haven meeting of Geological Society of America and the Paleontological Society. Simpson reestablishes friendship with Denver childhood playmate, Anne Roe, who receives her M.A. in psychology from Denver University and enters Columbia University in the fall.

1926

Simpson awarded his Ph.D. in geology from Yale in June. His second daughter Patricia Gaylord ("Gay") is born on 6 July in New Haven. Simpson receives fellowships from the National Research Council and the International Education Board for post-doctoral research on British and European Mesozoic mammals at the British Museum (Natural History) in London. In October sails for England with wife and two infant daughters. Lydia, however, prefers sunny southern France to dreary London and takes off for Grasse. Simpson now supporting two households on his fellowships. Simpson divides Christmas holidays with Lydia in Grasse and his artist sister Martha in Les Arcs, southern France. Daughter Joan conceived during Christmas conjugal visit.

1927

Simpson continues his research on Mesozoic mammals at the BMNH and travels to museums on the Continent to examine additional specimens. Lydia returns to the U.S. where the Simpsons' third daughter Joan is born in Boulder on 20 September. Simpson sails back to America in October on the "Arabic," and on November 1, starts as assistant curator in vertebrate paleontology at the AMNH at the annual salary of $2500. (Anne studying at Columbia, marries a Princeton graduate student in psychology, Cecil Broyler.)

1928

Simpson promoted to associate curator of vertebrate paleontology. In spring, a pregnant Lydia takes off once more, this time for California. Separation between husband and wife now almost continuous thereafter. Their fourth daughter Elizabeth is born on 20 December. Lydia and babies living for a time within the anthropological ménage of Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead.

1929

In the early part of the year Simpson goes to Florida to study fossils and stratigraphy of the Miocene-Pleistocene. In the summer studying the Paleocene (Puerco)mammals of the San Juan Basin in northwestern New Mexico and in late summer visits California, returning to New York by way of the Grand Canyon. "Stopped by Berkeley to see Matthew [my former AMNH mentor], but missed him....In late 1929 and early 1930 I continued my work on Florida faunas."

1930

In January, Simpson makes a reconnaissance trip to the southeastern U.S. to examine the Pleistocene of Louisiana, the Eocene of Mississippi, and the Carboniferous of Alabama. He is living with his parents in New York City after Lydia leaves for California and until his trip to South America on 8 August on the S. S. Western World. He arrives in the field in Patagonia in late September and stays until the following May (1931).

1931

In Patagonia on first South American expedition, "working mainly on the Tertiary geology and paleontology." His field assistant Coley Williams returns to AMNH with fossils in May; GGS stays working in Buenos Aires from May to October: "in the southern winter of '31 studying the Ameghino Collection in Buenos Aires and La Plata". Returns to NYC in October, separated from wife Lydia and living alone for a year. In December, he files for legal separation from Lydia. Meanwhile Anne separated from her husband and working in Philadelphia with Katharine McBride. Anne completes dissertation at Columbia University in psychology, but can't pay fees for PhD until 1933.

1932

In February GGS formally separated from Lydia and has custody of Helen (age 9); second daughter, Patricia Gaylord--"Gay" (6)--lives with maternal grandmother in Kansas; and Lydia retains custody of two youngest daughters, Joan (5) and Elizabeth (4). In late '32, Lydia committed to mental hospital and GGS's parents care for Joan and Elizabeth. Summer fieldwork in Montana collecting in Ft. Union Paleocene (see USNM Bull. 169,1937). Anne divorces Cecil Broyler and in October, GGS and Anne covertly live together in an apartment in Greenwich Village.

1933

GGS working mostly on South American mammals. He writes up first version of his autobiographical notes in which he remarks,"On 7/5/33, I had published 94 papers and memoirs, totaling nearly 2000 pages. He also writes a short personal memoir of his recently deceased mentor W.D. Matthew that is published posthumously in 1986. He arrives in Buenos Aires in October on the second Scarritt expedition where he continues his study of the early Tertiary geology and paleontology of Patagonia. Anne finally can afford the necessary fees and her PhD in psychology is awarded from Columbia University.

1934

GGS working again in Patagonia, then in the spring goes to Paris where he rendezvous with Anne and sister Martha. He then travels on to Moscow where he waits unsuccessfully for six weeks for a visa to Mongolia. He returns to NYC in June and shares an apartment on 57th St.with sister Martha and with Anne. He gives a radio talk on WOR on life in Patagonia, with discussion of his book, "Attending Marvels," that was published in May.

1935

GGS once again in Montana, collecting in the Ft. Union fossil beds. This is the third expedition financed by GGS's AMNH benefactor, investment banker and broker Horace Scarritt. Henry Fairfield Osborn dies at age 78; GGS will write a biographical piece about him for the "Dictionary of American Biography," 1944.

1936

In March, Lydia's court challenge for legal custody of Patricia fails, and on 15 March GGS completes the manuscript for the Ft. Union monograph (USNM Bull. 169). On 24 April, GGS is elected to the American Philosophical Society at the relatively youthful age of age 33. During the summer GGS makes a reconnaissance of the Tertiary of the West--N.M., Colo., Wyo., Mont., N. and S. Dakota--with daughter Helen in tow. GGS's first "door opener" paper on phyletic evolution as part of Harvard's Tricentennial celebration in September. In October, now living in Connecticut, GGS files for divorce from Lydia for mental cruelty. In December, GGS delivers his second theoretical "door opener" on super-specific variation at the AAAS in Atlantic City.

1937

GGS living in Stamford with daughter Helen as divorce proceedings continue. Lydia has temporary custody of daughters Joan and Elizabeth, pending final court decision. GGS reads Theo. Dobzhansky's recently published "Genetics and the Origin of Species," and is much impressed: "When I read this, it opened a whole new vista to me of the possibilities of really explaining the things that one could see going on in the fossil record and also by study of recent animals. I began pulling things together in this framework..." (Tapes, 1975, p. 45). Collaborating with Anne on "Quantitative Zoology" that is published the following year.

1938

"Tempo and Mode" started in the spring. In April wins Connecticut divorce from Lydia and gets full custody of Helen and Gay. He marries Anne on 27 May and they honeymoon in the Blue Ridge Mts. In the summer, he and Anne are living in Stamford with Helen. (Gay remains with maternal grandmother in Kansas.) In September, sails with Anne and his father to Venezuela where he is "working mainly on Pleistocene geology and paleontology, and ethnology of the Kamarakoto Indians." Anne collects recent mammals for the AMNH. During unseasonal heavy rains, they while away the time in their tent writing a detective story, "Trouble in the Tropics."

1939

In March, GGS goes with Anne to "la Gran Sabana" and works up ethnography of Kamarakotos Indians. March 30, is the "one day in Venezuela" as described in opening chapter of GGS's autobiography. "Quantitative Zoology" is "out at last, and a great relief." GGS Submits a paper on biogeography for the 6th Pacific Congress in San Francisco. In May GGS and Anne return from Venezuela to NYC and the AMNH.

1940

In February gives a paper on "Mammals and Land Bridges," at the Washington [D. C.] Acad. Sci. In December, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is organized at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Simpson becomes provisional secretrary-treasurer during the organizational year.

1941

GGS continues as provisional secretrary-treasurer of SVP and begins a news bulletin for the organization. He is elected a member of National Academy of Sciences.

1942

In April, GGS becomes first elected president of Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and in June, Albert Parr, the Director of AMNH, disbands department of vertebrate paleontology to Simpson's dismay, despite being promoted to curator of fossil mammals. "Tempo and Mode" manuscript completed over the summer, but owing to wartime restrictions will not be published until 1944. The manuscript for "Principles of Classification and Classification of Mammals" is also completed, but will not be published until 1945. In December GGS starts U.S. Army duty as a captain in military intelligence after completing six-week course of instruction in one week.

1943

GGS leaves for North Africa, where he is attached to General Eisenhower's command. In March goes to Algiers, in July to Tunisia, in September to Sicily. Receives the Lewis Prize for 1942 article on the "Beginnings of Paleontology in North America." National Academy of Sciences awards the Thompson Medal for GGS's research on Mesozoic mammals and evolutionary theory. GGS promoted to Major for military work, not for paleontological achievement!

1944

In January, GGS goes to Naples, as Allies continue their forward advance. In March, GGS returns to Algeria, as he begins slow recovery from severe hepatitis infection contracted in Italy. In August, GGS returns to U.S. and released from duty; awarded two Bronze Stars during war duty. AMNH director Parr reverses his decision to abolish Dept. of Paleontology and, in October, GGS appointed chairman of newly created Dept. of Geology and Paleontology; he is now curator of fossils mammals and birds. He also receives the Elliot Medal for "Tempo and Mode" from the National Academy of Sciences.

1945

GGS appointed professor of vertebrate paleontology in the department of zoology at Columbia University. He begins fossil mammals course and evolution seminar at AMNH.

1946

In latter part of March, GGS goes to St. Louis brewery with museum assistant, George Whitaker, to unearth Pleistocene fossils in cave. Also in March, the Society for the Study of Evolution is formally organized and GGS is the first president and arranges for a grant-in-aid from the American Philosophical Society for startup funds for the new society's journal, "Evolution." Summer field work in the Eocene of the San Juan Basin: "The Eocene had not been adequately studied and I therefore concentrated on it in 1946-54." GGS also reconnoiters the early Tertiary of Wyoming and Colorado. Anne finds the skull of Coryphodon--"Mama's first fossil" (see photo in GGS's autobiography). GGS receives honorary degree from Yale on 20th anniversary of the award of his Yale PhD.

1947

In January, GGS participates in the Princeton conference on "Genetics, Paleontology, and Evolution." While at Princeton he gives the Vanuxem Lecture on "Plan and Purpose in Nature" and receives an honorary degree. In the spring, he makes his first post-war visit to Europe and receives the Gaudry Medal from the Geological Society of France. Over the summer he continues his work in the San Juan Basin and attends the SVP field conference in Arizona. He and Anne buy a summer home in La Jara, N.M.--"Los Pinavetes"--where they will regularly return for the next two decades.

1948

GGS spends yet another field season studying the Eocene mammals and stratigraphy in the San Juan Basin; also attends SVP field conference in Wyoming. In October visits his seriously ill father in Los Angeles and in November gives the Terry Lectures at Yale that will be the basis for "The Meaning of Evolution," which will be translated into a ten languages and sell more than half a million copies.

1949

GGS gives paper entitled "Probabilities of Dispersal in Geologic Time" at AMNH symposium on the "Problem of Land Connections Across the South Atlantic." In February writes the Preface for "The Meaning of Evolution," which is published later in the year. Summer field work in New Mexico and Colorado studying Paleocene and Eocene mammals. In November gives paper at combined meeting of the Geological Society of America, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and Paleontological Society at El Paso, Tex., in a symposium on "Periodicity of Evolution." In December, GGS's father dies at age 80 in Los Angeles, and he writes a short obituary for him in SVP Bull., Feb.'50. (His father was a founding member of the SVP, as was GGS's wife, Anne Roe.)

1950

In January, GGS is Sigma Xi lecturer in northwestern U.S. on the "History of the Fauna of Latin America." He receives the Hayden Medal of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences where he gives a paper on "Hayden, Cope, and the Eocene of New Mexico." In June, GGS delivers a paper at Cold Spring Harbor anthropological symposium on the "Evolution of Man and Population Genetics." Later in the summer works in the Coryphodon quarry in the San juan Basin, then later in the Eocene of Wyoming with Paul McGrew. He is co-leader of SVP field conference in northwestern N. M., where participants spend one night at "Los Pinavetes." In November he writes the preface for his forthcoming book, "Horses."

1951

From April 26 to August 16th, GGS, with Anne, takes a 113 day trip around the world, visiting museums and giving lectures. The purpose of the trip is "for the promotion of the American Museum of Natural History ...to study collections and problems." Countries visited include Australia, Egypt, England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, and Norway. During the trip he receives honorary degrees from the University of Glasgow (20 June), University of Durham (29 June), and Oxford University (28 July). He also meets Charles Darwin's granddaughter Nora Barlow with whom he becomes a close friend. He and Anne spend the winter in their New Mexico home,"Los Pinavetes," finishing his and her books: "The Major Features of Evolution" and "The Making of a Scientist."

1952

GGS begins a popular book on fossils, "The Life of the Past," and over the summer continues work in the Paleocene and Eocene of the San Juan Basin. In the fall he receives the Penrose Medal from the Geological Society of America and votes in the presidential election at the local La Jara school house.

1953

In January, GGS gives the Condon Lectures in Oregon that will result in his book that summarizes his views on historical biogeography. "Major Features of Evolution," which is enlarged revision of "Tempo and Mode in Evolution," is published. Lying in bed, GGS and Anne think up the idea for their book on the evolution of behavior (Tapes, p. 78). He also signs a contract with Harcourt Brace and Co,. for yet another book, "Life: an Introduction to Biology," that will be co-authored with Colin Pittendrigh of Princeton and Lewis Tiffany of Northwestern University. Summer field work in Texas, Colorado, and Utah. In December, GGS receives the Dumont Medal from the Geological Society of Belgium.

1954

GGS receives honorary degree from the University of New Mexico and gives commencement address, 10 June. In summer, he supervises continuing field work in the Eocene Huerfano Fm., southern Colorado. He leaves in October for a four-month trip to Brazil and Argentina that includes field visits, lectures, and seminars. Meanwhile Anne is working on her book, "The Psychology of Professions." GGS updates his 1933 autobiographical notes.

1955

GGS returns to New York on 20 February. First Behavior and Evolution Symposium in Harriman, N.Y. as background for Anne's and his book. Summer in New Mexico working on two books and other articles, with some time out to reconnoiter early Tertiary in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. He spends four days in August at the Grand Canyon with a television crew filming a program for the AMNH.

1956

In late April, Anne and he hold second conference on behavior and evolution. GGS leaves 27 May for Brazil to collect fossils on the upper reaches of Amazon, the Alto Juruá, near the Peru border. On 24 August he is almost killed by a tree being felled to clear a camp site on the Alta Juruá. He finally reaches N. Y. hospital a week later. In early September, GGS undergoes the first of a dozen operations to recover the use of his badly broken right leg. Thus ends what GGS, years later, calls his "halcyon period"-- from his release from the U.S. Army in 1944 to to the accident in the summer of 1956.

1957

The biology book, "Life...," appears, after page proofs corrected in bed at home and in hospital between operations. GGS's Yale dissertation advisor, Richard Swann Lull, dies at age 90. GGS will write his memorial.

1958

GGS resigns as chairman of the department of vertebrate paleontology at AMNH and his colleague Edwin ("Ned") Colbert officially takes over. Angered, GGS decides to leave. In May, daughter Gay dies of a brain abcess. Anne's and his book, "Behavior and Evolution," is published. In July GGS is awarded medal from the Linnean Society commemorating Darwin-Wallace centennial. In September, GGS forced to ask new chairman Colbert for permission to accept an invitation to attend the 300th anniversary of British Association for the Advancement of Science. Colbert gives permission.

1959

On 17 April, Simpson formally resigns from AMNH and accepts offer from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard for appointment as Alexander Agassiz Professor. In May GGS receives (in absentia) Darwin plaque from Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina. In June he and Anne move to Cambridge, Mass., where they will remain until 1967 when they move to Tucson, Arizona. He also receives professorial appointments in biology and geology departments. GGS attends Darwin Centennial in Philadelphia at the American Philosophical Society and gives a paper on "Anatomy and Morphology: Classification and Evolution: 1859 and 1959." He also attends another Darwin centennial in November at the University of Chicago, where he receives an honorary degree and gives a paper on " The History of Life." In December GGS returns to Chicago for the American Association for the Advancement of Science Darwin Centenary where he delivers public lecture entitled, " The World into Which Darwin Led Us."

1960

In March and April, GGS gives the Jesup Lectures at Columbia University based on his forthcoming book on the "Principles of Animal Taxonomy." In the summer, he travels to Britain to attend 300th anniversary celebration of British Association for the Advancement of Science, and later, visits Spain, France (including the caves at Les Eyzies), and Belgium, where he gives a paper on the "Evolution of Mesozoic Mammals" at a conference on lower and non-specialized mammals. His mother dies in a nursing home in Albuquerque, N.M., in her 90th year.

1961

GGS meets Louis Leakey in Nairobi to visit hominid fossil sites and is present when Kenyapithecus wickeri is found by Leakey at Fort Ternan. He participates in New York Academy of Sciences symposium on "The Relatives of Man: Modern Studies of the Relation of the Evolution of Nonhuman Primates to Human Evolution," and delivers paper on "Primate Taxonomy and Recent Studies of Nonhuman Primates."

1962

On 24 May, GGS receives Gold Medal from Linnean Society and later the Darwin Medal from Royal Society. In July, he attends Wenner-Gren Foundation international conference in Austria on "Classification and Human Evolution" where he gives keynote address on "The Meaning of Taxonomic Statements." In late September and early October he experiences an unsuccessful series of lectures at the University of New Mexico at Las Vegas ("Simple Curiosity," p. 312-316). Throughout the year he also serves as president of the Society of Systematic Zoology.

1963

Anne made a full professor of education at Harvard, the ninth woman in Harvard history to do this. GGS and Anne thus first husband-wife couple to be full professors at Harvard! In spring, GGS gives lecture series on "the nonprevalence of humanoids" that is provocative, because it argues that the evolutionary appearance of technological civilization is an historical result of very low probability. GGS thus disputes claim by many physical scientists that such a civilization is the result of a deterministic process of sufficiently high probability to warrant the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. In a letter to South American colleague Lew Price in August, GGS mentions his recent "coronary thrombosis."

1964

GGS and Anne suffer "his and her heart failures" and are hospitalized in Albuquerque. Later in summer, he is back in hospital and she in nursing home. Most of the rest of the year they go on a South Seas convalescent cruise. Although president of the American Society of Zoologists, he is not able to be actively involved. "This View of Life," a collection of earlier essays, is published, and becomes GGS's "favorite book."

1965

GGS receives second (unprecedented) Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. In July, he writes the preface to "The Geography of Evolution," which assumes continental stability and therefore becomes immediately obsolete as the ensuing plate tectonics "revolution" confirms "continental drift." In September, GGS gives A talk in Chicago at the American Psychology Association on "Biology and Ethics." In November, he receives an honorary degree from the Sorbonne where he lectures on the "Biological Nature of Man." In December, he gives the Burke Memorial Lecture at University of Washington where the widely distributed picture of a tarsier nibbling his ear is taken. He also receives honorary degree from Cambridge University.

1966

In February, GGS receives the National Medal of Science from President Lyndon B. Johnson. In October, he receives an honorary degree at the first commencement of York University in Toronto; also in October, he is awarded the Addison Emery Verrill Medal from Yale University on the one hundredth anniversary of its Peabody Museum of Natural History. He also writes the preface to the revised edition of "The Meaning of Evolution."

1967

GGS appointed professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona (from which he will eventually retire on 30 June 1982 at age 80) but continues part-time at MCZ (until 1970). Anne has the "first of three heart operations." From February to March, Anne and he take another convalescent cruise, this time around Africa--"we both had been quite ill." On 18 April they make their "next big move" to Tucson (5151 Holmes St.), with sister Martha living nearby. Their New Mexico home, "Los Pinavetes,"is sold; it is too remote and primitive, given his and Anne's age and health. In November GGS leaves in the middle of an "inane "conference at the University of Denver (see his autobiography, p. 181).

1968

GGS "dividing time between Harvard and the University of Arizona." He writes preface to "Biology and Man" in May. Also in May he gives a lecture on "Man and Nature" at the centennial of the University of California in Berkeley. He receives an honorary degree from the University of Colorado, 35 years after his freshman class graduated from there. He also receives an honorary degree from Kenyon College in Ohio. In the fall, Anne and GGS visit Australia and New Zealand, and "on way" from Tucson to Australia Anne receives the Richardson Creativity Award from the American Psychology Association.

1969

"Biology and Man" is published. In summer GGS and Anne take another recuperative cruise, this time to Alaska where Anne celebrates her 65th birthday. Spain in October. GGS receives the Cross Medal from Yale and the Distinguished Service Medal from the AMNH.

1970

GGS now ceases all connections with the MCZ and Harvard. He gets a Royal Society of London grant to study penguins, and travels to southern South America and Antarctica in January and February. He also goes to London for Linnean Society symposium on early mammals as well as Stockholm. Makes final revision and additions to his autobiographical notes.

1971

In January, GGS makes second Antarctica trip. Later in year he attends the Teilhard de Chardin symposium in San Francisco.

1972

GGS takes another trip to Africa, this time to Rhodesia and South Africa. He accompanies Anne to Honolulu where she receives another award from the American Psychology Association. They make their third trip to Antarctica, spending Christmas in the Falkland Islands.

1973

GGS attends the Zoological Society of London symposium on rodents, and travels to Athens and the Greek Islands. Later in the year, a trip to Yucatán Ecuador, and the Galápagos Islands. He receives the Paleontological Medal from the Paleontological Society.

1974

In July, GGS attends another Wenner-Gren conference in Austria, and gives the keynote paper, "Recent Advances in Methods of Phylogenetic Inference." Trip to Greenland and Arctic Canada. In November, GGS visits daughter Elizabeth who is seriously ill with tubercular meningitis in California. Meanwhile, Anne is in intensive care in Tucson after leaking plastic mitral valve replaced.

1975

In June and July, GGS and Anne travel to Europe, then go on a North Cape (Norway) cruise. In August, GGS tape records a long commentary on his major publications. In September, GGS goes to Manila with Anne and his sister Martha on a tour of the Philippines and Indonesia. In November, he writes the preface for his book on penguins.

1976

GGS's book on penguins is published. He and Anne on the move again, this time to the South Pacific, including a visit to the Queensland museum in Australia.

1977

In February and March, Anne and GGS take a trip to the Himalayas; in May, they travel to the Soviet Union.

1978

GGS's autobiography, "Concession to the Improbable," is published by Yale University Press.

1980

GGS's book on South American paleontology, "Splendid Isolation," is published as is a collection of selected papers, "Why and How."

1982

GGS's commentary on selected Darwin writings, "The Book of Darwin," is published. He formally retires from his half-time appointment in the Dept. of Geosciences at the University of Arizona at age 80.

1983

GGS's next to last book, "Fossils and the History of Life," is published.

1984

GGS's last book, "Discoverers of the Lost World," is published. Like his first, "Attending Marvels," it is about South America. Anne and GGS take another South Seas cruise during which GGS catches pneumonia, and in the summer he is in the hospital on and off with various resulting complications. On Saturday, 6 October, GGS dies of heart failure in Tucson hospital. His body is cremated and ashes dispersed in the desert outside Tucson. A memorial for him takes places at the University of Arizona in late October. During this last year of his life, he was working on a manuscript on extinction that was posthumously published the following year.