William Wightman Price

* 20.1.1871 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
† 9.11.1922

William Wightman Price

Son of Robert Martin and Harriet Wightman PRICE. After his mother’s death he lived with his grand parents in West Bend, Wisconsin, later in St. Edward, Nebraska and Riverside, California. Already during his youth he collected eggs, practised hunting and spent his money for purchasing bird and mammal skins. He attended Oakland High School in Arizona (Master of Arts degree). Then he studied economics at Stanford University and received his Master’s degree for an account of the mammals of California. Price collected birds and mammals in the Chiricahua Mts., Arizona and in the Sierra Nevada during the 1890s. Deserts and mountains were his mental environment to which he regularly fled from the laboratory. In 1900 he married Bertha de LAGUNA with whom he had two daughters. PRICE worked at his schools at Alta, Auburn, Camp Agassiz and Fallen Leaf Lodge. These schools combined education and practical knowledge for out-door-life. PRICE became also involved in Red Cross work. He died of heart disease. Specimens came to the Royal Museum Ontario via C.K. WORTHEN (dealer from Warsaw, Illinois). PRICE was member of the American Ornithologists’ Union, Cooper Ornithological Club, California Academy of Sciences, Sierra Club, American Historical Association and Beta Theta Pi. His name is commemorated in two fish taxa (Villarius pricei RUTTER and Campostoma pricei JORDAN & THOBURN, a rattlesnake Crotalus pricei VAN DENBURGH, a Chipmunk, Eutamias pricei ALLEN and a pocket mouse, Perognathus pricei ALLEN.

Lit.:
FISHER W.K., 1923: William Wightman PRICE. — The Condor 25, 50-57.

Pers. comm.: B. MILLEN, Ontario,Canada, R. QUIGLEY, Hemet, CA, USA.

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