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FW: Obit: Phoebe Snetsinger, 68, Dies; Held Record for Bird Sightings



With apologies because this does not pertain directly to NC/SC birds I
thought those on carolinabirds would be interested in the following.

Derb Carter
Chapel Hill, NC


> Date:               12/02/99
> EDF Program:   Ecosystem Restoration
> Publication:        New York Times
> Headline:      Obit: Phoebe Snetsinger, 68, Dies; Held Record for Bird
> Sightings
> EDF Quoted:
> Reporter:      DOUGLAS MARTIN
> http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/obit-p-snetstinger.html
> 
> 
>           December 2, 1999
> 
> 
>           Phoebe Snetsinger, 68, Dies; Held Record for Bird Sightings
> 
>           By DOUGLAS MARTIN
> 
>                hoebe Snetsinger, who saw and recorded more birds than
>                anybody else, died on Nov. 23 in a van accident on a
> birding
>           expedition to Madagascar, shortly after viewing an
> exceptionally
> rare
>           Helmet vanga. She was 68 and lived in Webster Groves, Mo., a
> suburb
>           of St. Louis.
> 
>           Birding went from a hobby to a passion for Mrs. Snetsinger
> on the
>  day in
>           1981 that a doctor told her she had an incurable cancer,
> with
> less than a
>           year to live. Rejecting therapy, she took off to Alaska on a
> scheduled
>           trip, her first long-distance journey simply to see birds.
> 
>           "She came back and felt good," her husband, David, said.
> "Things
> just
>           started snowballing from there."
> 
>           Mrs. Snetsinger liked to say her avian ardor "began with a
> death
>           sentence," and her relentless energy reflected that level of
> urgency as her
>           cancer went into the first of several remissions. Family
> members
> and
>           friends could not imagine her without binoculars, floppy
> hat,
> sneakers,
>           telescope and other field gear as she scurried around the
> globe
> on scores
>           of bird tours, most costing more than $5,000. An inheritance
> paid
>  the
>           bills; she supplied the boundless energy. She said she spent
> more
>  time in
>           the world's jungles, mountains and other wild areas than at
> home.
> 
> 
>           There were setbacks, as the cancer, melanoma, recurred every
> five
>  years
>           or so, only to go into remission again. But her record, as
> verified by the
>           American Birding Association, was sighting about 8,400
> birds, or
> nearly
>           85 percent of the species now estimated to exist, more than
> 2,000
>  birds
>           ahead of her nearest competitor.
> 
>           "She was a celebrity in our bunch," said Bret Whitney, a
> co-founder of
>           Field Guides, a tour operator based in Austin, Tex.
> 
>           Mrs. Snetsinger was traveling on one of the group's tours
> when
> the van
>           overturned. Whitney said she apparently died instantly.
> 
>           "She gave so much to the birding world and had so much more
> left
> to
>           give," said G. Stuart Keith, the birding association's first
> president. At the
>           highest tier of birding, it was a common joke to
> differentiate
> between
>           Phoebe Snetsinger and the phoebe, a genus of flycatchers.
> 
>           Genera, or large groups of species (as in the genus Homo of
> Homo
>           sapiens), were of considerable importance to Mrs.
> Snetsinger, who
>  kept
>           a separate list of those that have only a single species,
> known
> as
>           monotypic genera. Her list of more than 2,000 such genera
> far
> surpassed
>           anyone else's, said Whitney, who also works as a research
> associate at
>           Louisiana State University.
> 
>           She also kept extensive notes on subspecies, using index
> cards as
>  a
>           catalog until switching in recent months to a computer from
> the
>           Remington portable typewriter she had used since college.
> 
>           Her subspecies notes, in whatever format, are important
> because
> many
>           of the birds have now been reclassified as species. When she
> started,
>           there were 8,500 officially named species, compared with
> about
> 10,000
>           now. A spokeswoman for the American Museum of Natural
> History
> said
>           some scientists believed there could eventually be as many
> as
> 18,000
>           named separate bird species.
> 
>           This means that her life list will almost certainly grow
> posthumously. "She
>           has birds in escrow," Whitney said.
> 
>           Mrs. Snetsinger was born in Lake Zurich, Ill., where she
> attended
>  a
>           one-room elementary school with only two other students. At
> 11,
> she
>           met her future husband, then 13, in 4-H clubs.
> 
>           She graduated from Swarthmore College as a German major, and
> then
>           taught science at the Baldwin School, a private girls school
> in
> Bryn
>           Mawr, Pa. When Snetsinger returned from service in Korea,
> they
> both
>           attended graduate school and she earned a master's degree in
> German
>           literature.
> 
>           They had four children, all of whom survive. They are
> Thomas, of
>           Corvallis, Ore.; Penny, of Woodbridge, Conn.; Carol, of
> Missoula,
>           Mont., and Susan, of Tempe, Ariz. All but Penny pursued
> careers
>           relating to birds, Thomas as a researcher in endangered bird
> species for
>           the Federal government, Carol as a bird researcher in Alaska
> and
>           Montana, and Susan as a student of the spotted owl in the
> Northwest.
> 
>           In 1965, a friend took Mrs. Snetsinger birding for the first
> time
>  in
>           Minnesota, and when her husband took a corporate job in
> Missouri
> she
>           pursued her interest with a group of birders. (Birders
> adamantly
> spurn the
>           term "birdwatcher" in the belief that it suggests a lack of
> gravity.) The
>           group visited local woods and prairies each Thursday
> afternoon.
> 
>           After birding came to represent a new lease on life to her,
> Mrs.
>           Snetsinger began to take longer and longer trips. She was
> hooked
> when
>           she visited Kenya and saw 500 different birds in three
> weeks. Her
>           odyssey was aided by new technology for recording bird
> sounds,
> greater
>           access to more and more remote habitats and the increasing
> numbers of
>           tours being offered.
> 
>           The depth of her enthusiasm is suggested by her response to
> a
> fall she
>           took about six months ago while climbing a mountain in the
> Philippines:
>           she stayed in the field for two additional weeks to see more
> birds.
> 
>           The whole idea of listing birds, or at least the seriousness
> of
> the pursuit, is
>           also sometimes criticized, or at least satirized. Indeed, it
> is
> called "the
>           game" by birders themselves. "It's like collecting stamps or
> baseball
>           cards," said Paul J. Baicich, editor of Birding, the
> magazine of
> the
>           American Birding Association.
> 
>           Snetsinger said his wife's competitive spirit was kept
> hidden,
> though he
>           did not deny it existed. In a 1996 interview, she insisted
> that
> she wanted
>           to play down her quantitative quest. "I'm going back to
> being a
> birder,
>           not a lister," she said.
> 
>           Ultimately, she felt very lucky, as she explained in an
> article
> to be
>           published in next February's issue of Birding.
> 
>           "Birding is the best and most exciting pursuit in the world,
> a
> glorified
>           never-ending one," Mrs. Snetsinger wrote. "And the whole
> experience of
>           a foreign trip, whether you see 10 new birds or 500, is
> simply
> too good
>           to miss."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> _______________________________________________
> |-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------
> --|
> |Created By:      |Allan Margolin   |Created On:      |12/02/99
> 08:57:41|
> |                 |                 |                 |AM
> |
> |-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------
> --|
> |Last Modified By:|Allan Margolin   |Last Modified On:|12/02/99
> 08:58:50|
> |                 |                 |                 |AM
> |
> |-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------
> --|
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>       Daniel J. Whittle
>       Attorney
>       North Carolina Environmental Defense Fund
>       2500 Blue Ridge Road, Suite 330
>       Raleigh, NC  27607-6454
>       919/881-2601 (phone)
>       919/881-2607 (fax)
>