Dr Arthur William Baden Powell CBE (4 April 1901 - 1 July 1987) was a New Zealand malacologist, naturalist and palaeontologist, a major influence in the study and classification of New Zealand molluscs through much of the 20th century. He was known to his friends and family by his third name, "Baden".
Powell was born at Wellington, New Zealand, on 4 April 1901. His schooling was in Auckland, and he trained in printing at the Elam School of Fine Arts. This training, and his interest in conchology, set him on his life's work. He started writing scientific papers on mollusca in 1921, and became one of the few experts in New Zealand shellfish.
Powell married Isabel Essie Gittos on 19 December 1928, at Devonport in Auckland. They had a son.
He was appointed to the Auckland War Memorial Museum as palaeontologist and conchologist in 1929, working with some lesser-known mollusc families. He also studied New Zealand’s big land snails, the Paryphanta, and the Placostylus flax snails. From 1932 Powell participated in dredging expeditions on the British research ship Discovery II exploring coastal Northland and discovering large numbers of new species. Other field trips from the 1930s to 1960 took him to Stewart Island, the Chatham Islands, the Kermadec Islands and the Antarctica and sub-Antarctic region, resulting in many important papers.
Powell wrote over 100 scientific papers and three books. His 500-page New Zealand Mollusca, published in 1979, was a gigantic and important undertaking, the result of 50 years of single-handed work.
Powell was a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand from 1940 and was the recipient of the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1947. He also received an honorary DSc in 1956 from the University of New Zealand and a CBE in 1981.
His wife died in 1976. Two years later, he married Ida Madoline Worthy (née Hayes) at Whangarei. Powell died on 1 July 1987 in Auckland.
Taxa named after him include:
- Powelliphanta O'Connor, 1945
- Antimargarita powelli Aldea, Zelaya & Troncoso, 2009
- Falsilunatia powelli Dell, 1956
- Philine powelli Rudman, 1970
- Zeacolpus pagoda powelli Marwick, 1957
Read more about Arthur William Baden Powell: Bibliography
Famous quotes containing the words arthur and/or powell:
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