Austin Pickard "Bob" Platt

Austin P. Platt Austin P. Platt was born in Evanston, Illinois on October 29th, 1937 to Dorothy Pickard Platt and Sherwood Kellogg Platt of Glencoe. He died on April 7th, 2020 in Helena, Montana. For most of his life Austin was known to family and friends alike, as “Bob.“ Bob attended New Trier High School and graduated in 1955. He graduated from Williams College in the Class of 1959, and received a PhD in Zoology from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1965. Bob was a classically trained field ecologist. His PhD focused on small mammal populations but his research soon turned toward his life-long interest in butterflies. Bob taught zoology at University of Rhode Island in Kingston, and then taught Biological Sciences at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Bob began teaching biology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in the fall of 1969 and spent the next 30 years there until his retirement in 2000. Bob maintained a career-long research interest in the ecology, speciation, and genetics of Admiral Butterflies. He was a member of Sigma Xi, and a founding member of the Maryland Entomological Society. In 1973, as president of the Maryland Entomological Society, he played an important role in convincing the State of Maryland to make the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly the State Insect. Bob was a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London, and in 1978 was appointed editor of the Journal of the Lepidopterists Society. Bob was also a founding member of the Maryland Geological Society (Fossil Club.) He was well liked by many of his students and probably bored a few others! After retirement Bob led countless nature walks as a volunteer at the One Room School House in Calvert County, Maryland and also worked as a volunteer in the Paleontological Department at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland. Bob maintained long-term avocational interests in archaeology, paleontology, and the frontier history of the Bozeman Trail in Wyoming and Montana. He was a member of the Montana Archaeological Society and wrote occasional pieces for The Ecphora, the newsletter of the Calvert Marine Museum. Bob had a rare blood type and donated blood regularly for many years. Bob had many non-academic interests. He was a lifelong outdoorsman, hiker, birder, fly-fisherman, fly-tier, rifleman, wing shooter, horseman, dog-lover, and collector of antique knives, firearms, and Native American beadwork. His eccentricities included a deep interest in primitive tools and weaponry including, flintknapping, archery, atlatls and blowguns. He spent countless hours in retirement beading knife sheaths using sinew as thread, in the manner of mid-19th century Native Americans. He mended the torn upholstery of his old VW with raccoon gut, ate insects to the delight of his grandchildren, and chewed juniper berries while hiking in the west. He was highly skilled with a butterfly net. Bob was preceded in death by his parents, Dorothy and Que Platt, and brother David Platt. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Pamela C. Platt of Bozeman, Montana, and sons Stephen Platt (Alicia) of Helena, Montana and Richard Platt (Cara) of Buffalo, Wyoming, along with grandchildren Julia Pattin (Caleb) of Jefferson City, Montana and Hamilton Platt of Missoula, Montana. In addition, Bob is survived by his most recent grandchild, Elsa Wilder Platt, of Buffalo, Wyoming. Bob is also survived by his sister Sherry Schellenbach (Peter) of Glencoe, Illinois, and sister in law Nancy Platt of Augusta, Maine. He is survived by nephews Jonathan Platt (Jennifer), Thomas Platt, John Schellenbach, David Schellenbach (Laura), Teddy Schellenbach and niece Elizabeth Platt Hamblin (Mark). Bob has been cremated and when the pandemic allows, his ashes will be spread in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming on ground (at the HF Bar Ranch) that his family has traversed on foot and horseback for over a hundred years.