Rufus Wade Fox Jr. (June 2, 1920 – September 20, 1964), was an American

zoologist 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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He specialized in the anatomy of

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

s and the

systematics Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic tre ...

of the western

garter snake Garter snake is a common name for generally harmless, small to medium-sized snakes belonging to the genus ''Thamnophis'' in the family Colubridae. Native to North and Central America, species in the genus ''Thamnophis'' can be found from the sub ...

Biography

Wade Fox was born on June 2, 1920 in Hilton, Virginia. He graduated from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

in 1943 and then earned a Master's (1946) and doctoral degree at the

, working as Curatorial Assistant of in the

Museum of Vertebrate Zoology The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is a natural history museum at the University of California, Berkeley. The museum was founded by philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander in 1908. Alexander recommended zoologist Joseph Grinnell as museum director, ...

from 1943–1949, and earning a PhD under

Robert C. Stebbins Robert Cyril Stebbins (March 31, 1915 – September 23, 2013) was an American Herpetology, herpetologist and illustrator known for his field guides and popular books as well as his studies of reptiles and amphibians. His ''Field Guide to Western ...

in 1950. His dissertation topic was "Biology of the Garter Snakes of the San Francisco Bay Region". Later he became president of Herpetologists' League and an editor of the journal ''

Copeia ''Ichthyology & Herpetology'' (formerly ''Copeia'') is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in ichthyology and herpetology that was originally named after Edward Drinker Cope, a prominent American researcher in these fiel ...

''. He named several

(''Thamnophis'') subspecies, including ''Thamnophis elegans terrestris'', ''Thamnophis elegans aquaticus'' (now a synonym of ''T. atratus atratus'') and ''Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi''. He is commemorated in the name of the Fox's mountain meadow snake (''Adelophis foxi'' ). Wade Fox died of a heart attack following heart surgery on September 20, 1964.

Partial bibliography

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References

("Fox, W.", p. 93). American herpetologists 1920 births 1964 deaths University of Southern California faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni University of North Carolina alumni Louisiana State University faculty People from Scott County, Virginia Scientists from California Scientists from Virginia 20th-century American zoologists {{US-zoologist-stub