Dear colleagues,
I have the sad news to report that Professor Keith H. Woodwick passed away
on 01 November at the age of 89.
Keith received his Bachelor’s degree from Jamestown College in North Dakota
and his MS degree from the University of Washington where he worked with
Dr. Dixie Lee Ray on hemichordates. He subsequently received a PhD from the
University of Southern California where he conducted research on *Polydora*
under the direction of Dr. Olga Hartman. Upon graduation he joined the
Biology faculty at Fresno State College in 1955.
As an undergraduate student at FSC and Keith was Professor of the General
Zoology course that I took in my second year. He inspired me to change my
major from Geology to Biology and I later took additional courses from him
and completed a research project on polydorids needed to complete my
undergraduate degree. I stayed on to work with Keith for a Master’s degree
and completed a study on spionids from Morro Bay, California.
After completing my own PhD in 1969, I returned to California and worked
with Keith on several projects of mutual interest and we published several
papers together including new species of *Polydora *and *Boccardia* and
larvae of* Pseudopolydora*. His own papers included new species of *Polydora,
Pseudopolydora*, and *Tripolydora* which was also a new genus. Keith also
worked on larval development and published papers on larvae of *Polydora
nuchalis* and *Boccardia proboscidea*.
After moving east in 1980, and when the invertebrates from the newly
discovered hydrothermal vents were arriving in Woods Hole and at the
Smithsonian from the various expeditions, I recalled Keith’s interest in
hemichordates and through Fred Grassle and Meredith Jones, arranged for
specimens of the newly discovered so-called spaghetti worms from the
Galapagos Rift to be sent to him for study. He and another of his students
subsequently described *Saxipendium cornonatum*, the first of many deep-sea
enteropneusts that would be discovered in subsequent years.
Keith was my mentor and inspired me to work as a marine biologist and to
study polychaetes. He taught me how to organize data, how to write, and how
to prepare illustrations. He also made certain to introduce me to other
workers in the field. We made several trips to visit Drs. Hartman, Reish,
and various students including Kristian Fauchald. There is little doubt
that Keith’s mentoring and encouragement resulted in my own career as a
marine biologist with a specialty in polychaetes.
He was a kind and caring person. He would always ask first about my family.
Jim Blake
--
James A. Blake, Ph.D.
Aquatic Research & Consulting
24 Hitty Tom Road
Duxbury, MA 02332
CELL: 508-277-2760
E-Mail: jablake9 from gmail.com
