Archie Carr - Biography

Biography

Born in Mobile, Alabama, Carr was the son of a Presbyterian pastor, and grew up in Mobile, Fort Worth, Texas, and Savannah, Georgia. He studied zoology at the University of Florida, eventually specializing in herpetology. He further refined that interest to the study of turtles and eventually became one of the world's foremost authorities on sea turtles. He was married to Marjorie Harris Carr a conservationist herself.

He started out as a high school science teacher before becoming a college professor. He published numerous books and articles, including Ulendo: Travels of a Naturalist in and out of Africa, High Jungles and Low, So Excellent a Fishe (about his green turtles), The Windward Road and several Time-Life books such as The Everglades and The Reptiles. He was also the author of the Handbook of Turtles, and with Coleman J. Goin, Guide to the Reptiles, Amphibians and Freshwater Fishes of Florida. While a serious scientific and nature writer, he also had a remarkable sense of humor, which led him to publish the parody of scientific taxonomic keys - his A Subjective Key to the Fishes of Alachua County, Florida, affectionately known as the "Carr Key".

Carr became a bit of a legend at the University of Florida and students vied with one another to take his Community Ecology course in which they were involved in several major and minor field trips around northern Florida and southern Georgia. Listening to Carr talk about the Sand Pine scrub near Ocala or his comments as he guided students through the Okefenokee Swamp in canoes was considered a great privilege.

Carr was also known for his efforts in conservation, especially for sea turtles, helping convince Costa Rica to establish Tortuguero National Park in 1975. He was a co-founder of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, which helps to save and monitor sea turtles in Tortuguero, Costa Rica. He was often joined in his conservation work by his wife Marjorie Carr, who was a major advocate for conservation in her own right. In 1952 Carr was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.