Curtis Adkisson

[Reed Bowman]

Curtis Adkisson passed away earlier this month. Curtis was a faculty member at Virginia Tech for 30 years and the curator of birds for most of his career. Curtis began coming to Archbold Biological Station in the early 1990s and began research on the caching behavior of blue jays. He was especially interested in the role played by blue jays in the re-colonization of oaks into nearby disturbed habitats, especially orange groves. He did radio telemetry on blue jays, examining their movement patterns during acorn season and banded many blue-jays, some of which are still in the area.

 

Curtis was a pilot and often flew to Florida, landing at local airport and riding a folding bicycle to Archbold. In later years, he kept an old Bronco here for his field work. Curtis took a keen interest in Archbold, especially its founder Richard Archbold, who also was a pilot, naturalist and explorer. Curtis wrote a brief history of Richard Archbold's plane, Guba, used on expeditions through the south Pacific in the 1930s.

 

Curtis was an enjoyable colleague and was always fun to have around. He has been and will be missed, as I am sure his numerous students feel as well.

 

Summary of Curtis’s career at Virginia Tech http://www.biol.vt.edu/owls/adkisson.html

 

Reed Bowman