Walter Joseph Bock (November 20, 1933 – January 27, 2022) was an American evolutionary biologist and ornithologist. Bock was a professor of evolutionary biology at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

from 1973 until his retirement. Bock was born in Queens, New York to Paul and Anne Bock née Kalsch who migrated to the US from Pfalz near

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

. After elementary school he joined the

Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is an elite public high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is one of th ...

. During his high school days he volunteered at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

where he was influenced by Dean Amadon. He received a BS from Cornell University in 1955, an MA from Harvard in 1957 and a PhD from Harvard in 1959 under

Ernst Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr (; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, Philosophy of biology, philosopher o ...

. His dissertation was on the palatine process of the premaxilla in the Passeres. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

with Dietrich Starck he became an assistant professor at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

in 1961. In 1965 he moved to Columbia University and became a professor in 1973. His lab which produced eleven doctoral students worked mainly on evolution and morphology. He published more than 300 papers on avian evolution, systematics and biological philosophy. Bock served as a permanent secretary of the International Ornithological Committee from 1986 and was actively involved in promoting international collaboration in ornithology. Bock received the Elliott Coues Award of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1975.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bock, Walter Joseph 1933 births 2022 deaths American ornithologists Columbia University faculty Cornell University alumni Harvard University alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty