Raymond Robert Forster (19 June 1922 – 1 July 2000) was a New Zealand arachnologist and museum director. He was a Fellow of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.

Biography

Forster was born in

Hastings, New Zealand Hastings (; mi, Heretaunga) is an inland city of New Zealand and is one of the two major urban areas in Hawke's Bay, on the east coast of the North Island. The population of Hastings (including Flaxmere) is (as of with a further people in H ...

in 1922, and was educated at

Victoria University College Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

, gaining BSc, MSc(Hons) and DSc degrees. Forster was an

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

at the

National Museum A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

in Wellington from 1940 to 1947, with an interruption for military service during World War II. Between 1942 and 1945 he served first in the army and then as a naval radar mechanic.Ray Forster obituary
. International Society of Arachnology. Retrieved 14 February 2013. He was appointed zoologist and assistant director at Canterbury Museum in 1948. Forster was one of the zoologists studying invertebrates on the 1949 New Zealand American Fiordland Expedition.'''' He was a marine biologist on the 1954 Chatham Islands expedition. In 1957 he moved to

Otago Museum Tūhura Otago Museum is located in the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is adjacent to the University of Otago campus in Dunedin North, 1,500 metres northeast of the city centre. It is one of the city's leading attractions and has one of t ...

to take up the position of director. He retired from that role in 1987. Forster wrote his first paper on spiders at the age of 17. Over the course of his career, more than 100 scientific papers and volumes were published bearing his name, including the definitive six-volume ''Spiders of New Zealand'', in co-authorship with international colleagues. He also published ''Small Land Animals'' and co-authored ''NZ Spiders, An Introduction''. Much of his work was accomplished in collaboration with his wife, Lyn Forster, a notable New Zealand arachnologist. He researched and classified many of New Zealand's thousands of native spiders, and was responsible for establishing

's spider collection. Forster died in Dunedin in 2000.

Honours

In 1961, Forster was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and received two of that society's honours: the Hutton Medal in 1971; and the Hector Medal in 1983. The University of Otago honoured Forster with the award of the degree of Doctor of Science, ''honoris causa'', in 1978. Forster was awarded the

Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (french: link=no, Médaille du jubilé d'argent de la reine Elizabeth II) is a commemorative medal created in 1977 to mark the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. The medal is p ...

in 1977, and was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services in the

1984 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1984 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countrie ...

. Forster was also elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.

Honorific eponym

A small valley in Fiordland, Forster Burn, is named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forster, Ray 1922 births 2000 deaths New Zealand arachnologists Victoria University of Wellington alumni Companions of the Queen's Service Order People from Hastings, New Zealand Directors of museums in New Zealand Royal New Zealand Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century New Zealand zoologists People associated with Otago Museum New Zealand military personnel of World War II People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand Fellows of the Entomological Society of New Zealand