James W. Eike (September 29, 1911 – February 8, 1983) was a birdwatcher and former president of th
Virginia Society of Ornithology
The James W. Eike Service Award was created by the Society in his honor in 1984. Eike was born in Woodbridge, Virginia. He graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 1932 and began a federal career in 1934 with the

U.S. Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...

. He later worked for the Civil Service Commission and joined the U.S. State Department in 1946. He retired in 1970 from the U.S. Information Agency. He lived in Northern Virginia around Falls Church and Fairfax. He kept detailed field notebooks which recorded his observation of birds, as well as weather conditions, for over 30 years, rarely missing a day. His observations were concentrated near his home in Northern Virginia, but also include Maryland, Washington D.C., and North Carolina. Eike joined the Virginia Society of Ornithology in 1933, and was an active member and officer of the Society for the rest of his life. Eike's personal papers are held by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Archives. His collection of 111 field books are part of Smithsonian's Field Book Registry; they have been scanned and posted online.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eike, James 1911 births 1983 deaths American naturalists People from Woodbridge, Virginia Georgetown University alumni 20th-century American zoologists Scientists from Virginia 20th-century naturalists