Charles H. Townsend

Full Name: Charles Haskins Townsend

Director, New York Aquarium

Centurion, 1903–1944

Proposed by
Henry Fairfield Osborn and John L. Cadwalader

born September 29, 1859
Parnassus, Pennsylvania

died January 28, 1944
Miami, Florida

elected December 5, 1903
Age forty-four

buried Unity Cemetery,
Latrobe, Pennsylvania

proposer of

seconder of

Member portrait of Charles H. Townsend — Member Photograph Albums Collection

To inquire about image use and/or publication, contact the Archivist.

Century Memorial

Charles Haskins Townsend. [Born] 1859. Naturalist. For 35 years director of the New York Aquarium, which he developed from small beginnings to a world institution; beginning with the United States Fish Commission in charge of salmon propagation, he undertook the conservation of reindeer in Alaska; for ten years cruised as a naturalist on board the U.S.S. Albatross observing widely and deeply studying constantly; served on Bering Sea Fur Seal Commission in aid of conservation; preserver of the Galapagos turtle, colonies of which he, established in Hawaii, California, and the Gulf of Mexico; one of the last of the self-taught naturalists of a former generation; a strong and salty personality, his face never lost the weathering of his long years at sea; his good fellowship will be grievously missed; the oldest Centurion on this roll [of 1944 decedents].

Geoffrey Parsons, Secretary
Annual Meeting Necrology, 11 January 1945

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