Frederick W. Loetscher Jr.

Frederick William Loetscher Jr. (6 June 1913 – 2 April 2006) was an American ornithologist.

He was the son of Frederick W. Loetscher Sr., a church historian who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary, and the brother of Lefferts Loetscher, also a church historian.[1] The Loetschers were descended from Swiss immigrants.[2]

Loetscher studied at Yale University before becoming the first person to obtain a PhD in ornithology from Cornell University.[3] He taught biology at Centre College from 1946 until his retirement in 1979.[4]

Loetscher specialized in bird calls. A subspecies of the olive-backed euphonia was named Euphonia gouldi loetscheri in his honor in 1966, but its existence as a distinct subspecies has been disputed.[5]

Loetscher served in the United States Army Medical Corps in World War II and was an elder in the Presbyterian Church.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Dr F. W. Loetscher, 91, Father of Centre Professor, Dies". The Advocate-Messenger. 3 August 1966. p. 3.
  2. ^ Piper, Otto A.; Jurji, Edward J. (1966). "Frederick W. Loetscher" (PDF). The Princeton Seminary Bulletin. LX (1): 65. Retrieved 27 February 2026.
  3. ^ a b "Retired Centre Professor Frederick Loetscher dies". The Advocate-Messenger. 4 April 2006. p. 2.
  4. ^ "College Directory". Centre College. Retrieved 27 February 2026.
  5. ^ "Olive-backed Euphonia". Birds of the World. Retrieved 27 February 2026.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.