Byron E. Harrell passed away from pneumonia in Island Hospital on Jan. 23, 2010.

He was born in St. Paul, Minn., and attended the University of Minnesota. After serving in World War II, he took courses in vertebrate paleontology at the University of Michigan, where he met and married Joyce.

Upon completing his doctorate at Minnesota, Byron became a professor of biology at the University of South Dakota, where he taught ornithology, mammalogy, evolution and biogeography. He continued his research and travels in Mexico, Central America, Europe and Brazil.

A founder of the South Dakota Nature Conservancy, he also founded the Raptor Research Foundation and its journal, and authored, “The Ecological Biogeography of the Birds of the Cloud Forests of Northern Middle America” (University of Minnesota, 1959).

After retirement, Byron and Joyce moved to San Juan Island.

Byron was loved by family and friends for his wisdom, kindness and unfailing sense of humor. Memorial contributions preferred to the Friday Harbor Food Bank.

— Family of Byron E. Harrell