It was in the 1980's when I first met Don. I noticed he wore a Phi Gamma Delta insignia ring which also happened to be my fraternity. Don was a member at University of Rhode Island; I had been a member at Oregon State College. In a manner of speaking we were brothers. This relationship prevailed in conversations, correspondence, meetings and so forth and lasted until his death in 1996. One of his postcards thanking me for Christmas cod fish cakes shows an aspect of this fraternal relationship.

You can see from the above that Don was full of the "old nick" limericks he knew by the dozens; he seemed to have one for every occasion. He also had a full store of golfing stories - some clean and some not so clean. In fact, he once asked his wife Marge to pre-approve the golfing story he planned to use for a talk he was giving to the Woods Hole Historical Museum.

Besides being members of the same fraternity, Don and I had many common interests including our backgrounds in natural history and the environment. I was the fish man, ichthyologist; Don was a Professor of Zoology and Ecology for 28 years at the University of Rhode Island. Don's wife, Marge, a botanist, often accompanied us on our excursions. We walked, we talked, we birded and we collected. We became experts on Oyster Pond, and on a number of occasions we made similar observations on nearby Salt Pond. We had hundreds of water samples which Marge analyzed at WHOI. At more than one cocktail party, I would greet Marge with vials of pond water to be analyzed at WHOI. We were never questioned.

Don and Marge were married in 1987. They lived in Marge's house on Oyster Pond Road practically on top of the Trunk River. Don spent much time at the river where he observed all the goings on. He was an acute observer and from time to time would send me notes of his observations. Here is a typical report. (see top of page two)

There was a certain excitement associated with biological collecting. On our walks Don was always seeing schools of small fish. He would report these to me and try to make them...

Continued on Second Page