John Ernest "Jack" Randall (May 22, 1924 – April 26, 2020) was an American ichthyologist and a leading authority on

coral reef fish Coral reef fish are fish which live amongst or in close relation to coral reefs. Coral reefs form complex ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity. Among the myriad inhabitants, the fish stand out as colourful and interesting to watch. Hundreds ...

es. Randall described over 800 species and authored 11 books and over 900 scientific papers and popular articles. He spent most of his career working in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. He died in April 2020 at the age of 95.

Career

John Ernest Randall was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in May 1924, to John and Mildred (McKibben) Randall. In high school he acquired a love of marine fish after a visit to the

tide pools A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide. Many tide pool habitats are home to especially adaptable animals that ...

Palos Verdes The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the S ...

and, after serving stateside in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army during the post- D-Day years of WWII,John Randall bio, The Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences. (http://www.auas-nogi.org/bio_randall_john.html) received his BA degree from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in 1950. In 1955 he earned his

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in ichthyology from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. After spending two years as a research associate at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, he moved to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and worked briefly at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

's Marine Laboratory,Carpenter, K. E. & Pyle, R. (2005). Notice of award of Bleeker Award for Systematics alongside C. Richard Robins who remained there for his career. From 1961–1965 he worked as Professor of

Zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

and also, from 1962–1965, as the director of the Institute of Marine Biology at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

. From 1965–1966 he served as the director of the Pacific Foundation of Marine Research's Oceanic Institute, Makapuu Point, Hawaii. From 1966 to 1984 he worked as an ichthyologist at the Bishop Museum, becoming chairman of the museum’s zoology department in 1975 and gaining the title of Senior Ichthyologist in 1984.John Randall profile, Hawaii Biological Survey Staff, Hawaii Biological Survey () He also, concurrently, served as a

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifi ...

at the Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii.Thaman, R. R. (2009). Dau Qoli – "Jack" Randall – Life Scientist and Man for all (Fishing) Seasons. ''Island Life, September 2009'' In 2005 he was awarded the first Bleeker Award in Systematic Ichthyology at the Seventh Indo-Pacific Fish Conference in Taipei, Taiwan.John E. Randall, Ph.D.
Hawaii Biological Survey, April 4, 2005. Retrieved August 26, 2013

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Works

*''A Contribution to the Biology of the Acanthuridae (Surgeon Fishes)'' (1955, in Issue 10 of Theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Hawaii (Honolulu)) *''Let a Sleeping Shark Lie'', 1961 *''Three New Butterflyfishes (chaetodontidae) from Southeast Oceania'', 1975 *(with Henri Lavondès) ''Les noms de poissons marquisiens'', 1978 *(with Roger Lubbock) ''Three New Labrid Fishes of the Genus Cirrhilabrus from the Southwestern Pacific'' (in Volume 25, Issue 2 of ''Occasional papers of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and Natural History'', Bishop Museum Press, 1982) *''Caribbean Reef Fishes'', 1983 *''Pomacanthus Rhomboides (Gilchrist and Thompson), the Valid Name for the South African Angelfish Previously Known as Pomacanthus Striatus'' (J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology, 1988, ) *''Coastal Fishes of Oman'' (1995; ) *''Shore Fishes of Hawaii'' (1996; ) *''Annoted Checklist of the Inshore Fishes of the Ogasawara Islands'' (in Volume 11 of ''National Science Museum monographs'', National Science Museum, 1997) *(with Phillip C. Heemstra) ''Review of the Indo-Pacific Fish Genus Odontanthias (Serranidae: Anthiinae), with Descriptions of Two New Species and a Related New Genus'' in Volume 38 of ''Indo-Pacific fishes'', Bishop Museum, 2006 *(with Jeffrey W. Johnson) ''Revision of the soleid fish genus Pardachirus'', in ''Indo-Pacific fishes'', Bishop Museum, 2007 *(with William N Eschmeyer) ''Revision of the Indo-Pacific Scorpionfish Genus Scorpaenopsis: With Descriptions of Eight New Species'' in ''Indo-Pacific fishes'' *''Revision of the Goatfish Genus Parupeneus (Perciformes: Mullidae) with Descriptions of Two New Species'' in ''Indo-Pacific fishes'' *(with Phillip C. Heemstra) ''Review of the Indo-Pacific Fishes of the Genus Odontanthias (Serranidae: Anthiinae), with Descriptions of Two New Species and a Related New Genus'' in ''

Indo-Pacific fishes The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

'' *(with Margaret M. Smith)
A review of the Labrid fishes of the Genus Halichoeres of the Western Indian Ocean, with descriptions of six new species
' in Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology; No. 45. J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology,

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public research university located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the province's oldest ...

. (1982; ) *(with David W. Greenfield)
A preliminary review of the Indo-Pacific Gobiid fishes of the genus Gnatholepis
' in Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology; No. 69. J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology,

. (2001; )

Taxon described by him

*See :Taxa named by John Ernest Randall

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, John Ernest 1924 births 2020 deaths American ichthyologists University of California alumni University of Hawaiʻi alumni Military personnel from California Writers from Los Angeles