Table Of ContentAmer. Malac. Bull. 23: 191-194
Melbourne Romaine Carriker: 25 February 1915 - 25 February 2007
An Appreciation
Clement L. Counts, IIl‘, Robert S. Prezant^, and J. Evan Ward^
' Department ofBiological Sciences, Richard A. Henson School ofScience and Technology, Salisbury University,
Salisbury, Maryland21801-6861, U.S.A., [email protected]
^College ofScience and Mathematics, Montclair State University, Montclair, New lersey07043, U.S.A., [email protected]
^ Department ofMarine Sciences, University ofConnecticut, 1080 Shennecossett Road, Groton,Connecticut06340,U.S.A.,
[email protected]
On 25 February 2007, our mentor, colleague, and great larvae in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. In fall 1938, he entered
friend, Melbourne Romaine Carriker died at Lewes, Dela- the University of Wisconsin and there earned a Master of
ware. It was his ninety-second birthday. He was surrounded Philosophyand, then, a DoctorofPhilosophydegree in June
by his children and grandchildren. 1943. During summers from 1938 through 1941, Mel re-
Mel’s life was as eventful and full as his scientific career. turned to Great Bay, New Jersey, and in the summerof 1942
He was born 25 February 1915 to Melbourne Armstrong he was placed in charge ofthe Oyster Investigation Labora-
Carriker, Jr. and Myrtle Carmella Carriker on the family tory at Bivalve, New Jersey. These experiences launched his
coffee plantation, Vista Nieve, near Santa Marta, Colombia. research on Mollusca. Meljoined thegraduatestudentgroup
Mel detailed his boyhood experiences on the plantation in of Lowell E. Noland to study Lymnaea stagnalis (Linne,
his memoir Vista Nieve (Carriker 2000). In 1925, at the age 1758), the snail vector for swimmer’s itch in humans. His
of ten, Mel participated in his first biological expedition doctoral dissertation focused on radular and digestive
accompanying his father, a world-class ornithologist and en- anatomy, physiology, and function ofL. stagnalis.
tomologist, to the eastern slope ofthe Andes. During 1939 at Wisconsin, Mel met Meriel Roosevelt
The plantation was sold in 1927. After the sale, the McAllister, known as Scottie. Following graduation from
family moved to Tom’s River, New Jersey, and Mel’s father Wisconsin, Melenteredthe Naval OfficersTrainingprogram
became a curator of birds at the Academy of Natural Sci- at Harvard College in June 1943 and emerged an Ensign in
ences of Philadelphia (ANSP). Mel attended the public the United States Naval Reseiwe. On 17 October 1943, he
schools and graduated from high school in 1934. In 1934 and Scottie were married in Richmond, Virginia, at a cer-
and early 1935, Mel and his father returned to the Andes in emony officiated by Scottie’s uncle. Mel and Scottie would
Bolivia on another ornithological expedition (Carriker, Jr. have four sons: Eric, Bruce, Neal, and Robert. Mel was or-
2006). During the steamship trip, Mel demonstrated his re- dered for further training at Fort Schuyler, New York, fol-
markable abilities on the dance floor, exhibiting such skill lowed by training in Miami, Florida. Mel was then ordered
that other dancers stopped to watch him and his partner. to the Aleutian Islands to serve aboard a small patrol craft
These displays were attributed to lessons provided by Mel’s with a crew of60 men and 5 officers. Since the Japanese had
mother in Tom’s River (Castillo and Holyoak 2004). This been absent for several months, there was little to do but
journey to the Andes was epic with train travel to the Alto make patrols, during which his duties were standing watch
Plano, a steamer across Lake Titicaca, and brushes with Bo- and burning obsolete codes. Eventually, he was promoted to
livian troops fighting a war with Argentina (Carriker 2005, Lieutenant (junior grade) and was made executive officer
Carriker, Jr. 2006). It was during this expedition that Mel (second-in-command). Between patrols, Mel collected mu-
contracted malaria. ricid gastropods and their blood sera from the Aleutian wa-
Mel entered Rutgers University in 1935 and he majored ters for shipment. Mel laughed that the seamen thought this
in agricultural research and minored in zoology, graduating behavior was odd but forgave him because he was, after all,
with honors and a B.S. in Zoology in 1938. Mel noted, by an officer, so odd behavior was expected. Mel placed these
playinga few minutes in avarsity match, he lettered in water Alaskan collections in the alcohol-preserved collections at
polo. It was Mel’s aim to become an ornithologist but in ANSP in the mid-1980s. Eventuallyhisship was sent to Pearl
1938, his undergraduateadvisor, ThurlowC. Nelson, offered Harbor forescort duty, includingescortingbarges filled with
him a position to study population movements of oyster pineapples. At the war’s end, Mel was ordered to report for
191
192 AMERICAN MALACOLOGICAL BULLETIN 23 • 1/2 • 2007
duty aboard a destroyer, patrolling offthe Philippines, and thatthe accurate identificationofspecieswas centralto good
became a civilian again on 25 December 1945. ecological practice. In furtherance ofthis belief, Mel devel-
Mel and his familymoved in with his mother at Belmar, oped and supervised the publication ofthe series Keys to the
New Jersey, though he spent some time at Madison, Wis- Flora and Fauna of the Northeast Atlantic Coast for the
consin, publishing his dissertation. Although Mel had five National Marine Fisheries Service. During this time, Mel
offers for positions, he was persuaded byThurlowNelson to also served on the Northeastern Regional Council, as-
return to Rutgers andbecame a Lecturer ofZoologyin 1946. sembled by the American Institute ofBiological Sciences to
Mel came to regret taking the position since many of the study bioscience research to be conducted on a manned
faculty remembered him as an undergraduate and still Earth-orbiting space station (Olive and Beem 1967). Mel
thought of him as such. Then as an Assistant Professor at famously made a motion picture of the drilling behavior
Rutgers, he developed agraduate course in estuarine ecology of Urosalpinx cinerea (Say, 1822) that has since been placed
and participated in field courses where students and Mel’s on the Internet (http://www.iwf.de/iwf/do/mkat/details
colleagues from geology and botany studied one of three .aspx?Signatur=C-l-13067), along with amplified recordings
transects across the state. During 1947-1951, Mel, Thurlow of the rasping of the radula of muricids as they drilled
Nelson, and Harold Haskin conducted studies on Merce- through oyster shell. By 1972, federal fundingwas becoming
nnria mercenaria (Linne, 1758) with a view to commercial- scarce andMel accepted a fullprofessorship atthe College of
ization. Nelson and Haskin worked in Delaware Bay while Marine Studies of the University of Delaware.
Mel worked on Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. By 1954, it Mel (Fig. 1) was responsible for helping to lay out the
became evident that Rutgers had room for only two marine new Harry L. Cannon Laboratory. He was instrumental in
biologists and Mel opted to accept a position as Assistant developing the shellfisheries program, and a new species of
Professor at the UniversityofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill. amebafound in the tankswas named in hishonor (Ovalopo-
During 1954 and 1955, Mel conducted research on oysters diin carrikeri Sawyer, 1980). Mel taught graduate courses in
and clams on Gardner’s Island, New York under the spon- malacology and supervised the research ofdoctoral students
sorship ofthe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in cooperation (see Carriker on AMS web site: Table 1) and master’s stu-
with Victor Loosanoff. dents (AMS web site: Table 2). Mel also recruited experts in
While at UNC, Mel spent 1956 to 1960 doing research marine ecology who presented summer graduate courses.
at North Carolina Institute of Fisheries Research. He also Mel served on the doctoral and master’s committees ofover
cooperated at the National Marine Fisheries Service Labo- 150 individuals since 1951 (AMS web site: Table 3).
ratory at Morehead City and the Duke University Marine Mel’s research, over six decades, concentrated on the
Laboratory at Beaufort, North Carolina. During these sum- biology of Crassostrea virginica and its predator Urosalpinx
mers, Mel focused his research on gastropods that drilled cinerea. Mel believed that the biology and ecology ofpreda-
oysters. The chairofthe department, Charles Jenner, headed tor and prey were entwined and that one could not be un-
both the limnology and marine ecology divisions ofthe de- derstood without knowledge ofthe other. How does U. ci-
partment and undervalued Mel’s contributions to the point nerea penetrate the shell of C. virginical How do newly
that Mel was dismissed in 1961. hatched U. cinerea find C. virginical What are the structures
Mel then accepted a position at the U.S. Fish and Wild- and physiology of U. cinerea that allow it to bore a hole
life Service. Mel and his family moved to Easton, Maryland through the shell of C. virginica and other bivalves? Mel
in the fall of 1961 and he took up his position at the Bureau employed everythingfrom simple field observations to x-ray
of Commercial Fisheries Laboratory at Oxford, Maryland. microanalysis. His observations included sound recordings
As Chief of the Shellfish Mortality Program, Mel was in ofthe rasping of U. cinerea and cinematography (which can
charge of research on MSX, the parasitic disease of Cras- still beviewed on aweb site). Hewas also among the first to
sostrea virginica Gmelin, 1791 that was gaining a substantial applyscanningelectron microscopyto the microstructure of
hold on oyster populations in Chesapeake Bay. However, the radula of U. cinerea and the shells of C. virginica and
funding was problematic and frustrating. Just as Mel was Mytilus edulis (Linnaeus, 1758). Mel identified the accessory
beginning at Oxford, he was offered the position as director boring organ (ABO) of the drills U. cinerea and Eupleura
ofthe newlyestablished Systematics-Ecology Program at the caudate (Say, 1822) and, through anatomical, histological,
Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachu- and histochemical methods, elucidated their structure and
setts. function in penetration ofbivalve shells. Melwasabletolink
The Systematics-Ecology Program operated successfully the shape ofabore holewiththe snails that producedit even
between 1962 and 1972 to study the flora and fauna ofthe in paleontological specimens (Carriker and Yochelson
western North Atlantic. Mel developed the keys to Woods 1968). Mel’s studies also made use ofhistochemistry, and he
Hole Region with Ralph 1. Smith (Smith 1964). Mel believed examined the elemental analysis of major and minor trace
.
MELBOURNE R. CARRIKER-AN APPRECIATION 193
ceedings of the National Shellfisheries Association. Mel was
named an Honored Life Member ofthe Association in 1991.
Mel was instrumental in the transformation ofthe Proceed-
ings oftheNational Shellfisheries Association into the Journal
ofShellfish Research. In 2005, Mel published a histoiy ofthe
association: The Tamingofthe Oyster. Mel was also active in
the American Malacological Society in which he served as
Vice-President, President, Member of Council, and was
named an Honorary Life Member. Mel was instrumental in
the transformation of the Bulletin ofthe American Malaco-
logical Union into the American Malacological Bnlletin and
served as a founding Associate Editor. At the most recent
meeting of the AMS, a Carriker Student Research Grant
programwas also founded. Hewas a memberofthe Institute
of Malacology, which publishes Malacologia, and he long
served on the editorial board of the Quarterly Review of
Biology. Other professional societies included the American
Society of Zoologists, the New England Estuarine Research
Federation (in which he was an Honorary Life Member),
and the Atlantic Estuarine Research Federation.
Mel retired from the University of Delaware in 1985 at
the age of70 and was named Professor Emeritus. A sympo-
sium was held in his honor on the Lewes campus at which
manyofhis friends and colleaguespresented papers (Prezant
and Counts 1985). Mel was so esteemed among his students
that in 2001, to honor his 85*'" birthday, his students sur-
prised Mel with “Carrikerfest”, a celebration ofhis life to date
[http://darc.cms.udel.edu/carrikerfest2001/cfestindex.html]
To further honor his contributions, his students and the
university presented him with the Carriker Contemplative
Garden just next to the shellfisheries laboratory. Mel, who
FUniigvuerresi1t.yMoeflDCealrarwiakreer,iCnolhliesgelaobforMaatorriyneeaSrtluydiineshi(sncoawreGerradatuatthee walked to work on a dailybasis, continued working at Lewes
CollegeofMarineand EarthStudies). UniversityofDelawarestock until two days before he suffered his stroke. LDuring his
photograph. emeritus years, Mel continued to submit annual activities
reports to the Dean’s office, although he was no longer re-
c]uired to do so. Dr. Nancy Targett, Dean of the College,
elements in oyster shell using a proton probe, developed by noted that Mel had more productive years in retirement
Charles P. Swann. Mel also studied chemoreception by U. than some faculty members aspire to during their active
cinerea and E. caudata with his student Betsy Brown and career. During his retirement, Mel published 31 papers, 4
post-doctoral fellows Leslie G. Williams and Dan Rittschof. book chapters, and 4 books. Mel served as president ofthe
Mel continued to exercise his interest in estuarine pollution Deliiware Partners in the Americas in which he worked for
and its effects on the benthos, the invasion ofcoastal waters closer scientific cooperation between the University and
by exotic species and the impact ofthose invasions on com- Panama. He also actively served the Association of Marine
mercially-valuable molluscan species. Mel summarized Laboratories of the Caribbean. By 2000, Mel had published
much ofthe results ofhis long study ofoysters in Kennedy over 160 professional papers (AMS web site: Table 4) and
et al. (1996) and Mercenaria rnercenarin in Kraeuther and reports, 45 abstracts, and more than 255 presentations at
Castagna (2001). scientific meetings, a significant portion during his “retire-
Mel served in many scientific organizations. Mel was ment” years. Mel continued to participate in professional
particularly active in the National Shellfisheries Association meetings throughout his professional life (Fig. 2). As was
(NSA), and in 1998 the Association founded a student re- true throughout his entire career, Mel deeply respected his
searchgrant in his name. In the NSA, heserved asTreasurer, students and colleagues. This has been recognized by the
Secretary, Vice-President, President, and Editor of the Pro- National Shellfisheries Association and the American Mala-
.
194 AMERICAN MALACOLOGICAL BULLETIN 23 • 1/2 • 2007
ware, Peggy Conlon, and staff for assistance in assembling
Mel’s records and bibliography.
Note: AfulllistingofMel’sgraduatestudents (including
thesis and dissertation topics), a listing of those graduate
students who had Mel sit on their research committees, and
hiscompletebibliographycanbefound at theweb site ofthe
American Malacological Society: http://www.malacological
•org/
LITERATURE CITED
Carriker, M. A., Jr. 2006. Experiences ofan OrnithologistAlong the
HighwaysandBywaysofBolivia: CollectingBirdsinanIsolated,
MagnificentLand in theNineteen Thirties. M. R. Carriker and
R. C. Dalgleish, eds. AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Indiana.
Carriker, M. R. 2000. Vista Nieve: TheRemarkable TrueAdventures
ofan Early Twentieth Century Naturalist and His Eamily in
Colombia, South America. Blue Mantle Press, Rio Hondo,
Texas.
Carriker, M. R. 2005. Taming ofthe oyster: A history ofevolving
shellfisheries and the National Shellfisheries Association. S. E.
Shumway, ed. Sheridan Press, Hanover, Pennsylvania.
Carriker, M. R. and E. L. Yochelson. 1968. Recentgastropod bore-
holes and Ordovician cylindrical borings. United States Geo-
logical Survey Professional Paper 593B: B1-B23.
Castillo, W. and S. S. Holyoak. 2004. Interviewwith Melbourne R.
Carriker. Rutgers Oral HistoryArchives, HistoryDepartment,
Rutgers, The State University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
[available at http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Interviews/
carriker_melbourne.html]
Figure 2. Mel Carriker at the March 2006 MidAtlantic Malacolo-
gists meeting at the Delaware Museum ofNatural History. Photo Kennedy, V. S., R. I. E. Newell, and A. F. Eble, eds. 1996. The
by Robert Robertson. Eastern OysterCrassostreavirginica. Maryland SeaGrant Col-
lege, College Park, Maryland.
Kraeuther, J. and M. Castagna,eds. 2001. BiologyoftheHardClam.
Elsevier, New York.
cological Society and, joining those professional organiza-
Olive, J. R. and D. R. Beem, eds. 1967. Bioscience Research During
tions in memorializing Mel’s dedication to his students, the Earth-OrbitingMissions:MannedEarth-OrbitingSpaceStation.
UniversityofDelaware, College ofMarine and Earth Studies American Institute of Biological Sciences, Washington, D.C.
has now established the Melbourne R. Carriker Student Eel- NASr-132.
lowship Endowment. Prezant, R. S. and C. L. Counts, III, eds. 1985. Perspectives in
Mel will be remembered for his many professional and Malacology. American Malacological Bidletin Special Edition
scientific accomplishments but those of us who were hon- No. 1. iii + 116 pp.
ored to be his friends and students will always treasure the Smith, R. I. 1964. Keys to Marine Invertebrates ofthe Woods Hole
warmth ofhis friendship, encouragement, high standard of Region. Systematics-Ecology Program, Marine Biological
professional conduct, and devotion to the advancement of Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
science. All of us who knew Mel Carriker are better for it.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Dr. Robert Robertson (ANSP, retired) for
photographs ofMel and Dr. NancyTargett, Dean, Graduate
College of Marine and Earth Sciences, University of Dela-
