Richard W. Heard (February 14, 1939 – November 2, 2022)

Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 65 (2): 199–204 (2022) doi: 10.3897/travaux.65.e99011 IN MEMORIAM Richard W. Heard Modest Guțu1, Iorgu Petrescu1 1 “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History, 1 Sos. Kiseleff, 011341 Bucharest 1, Romania Corresponding author: Modest Guțu () Received 19 December 2022 | Accepted 19 December 2022 | Published 31 December 2022 Citation: Guțu M, Petrescu I (2022) Richard W. Heard. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 65(2): 199–204. https://doi.org/10.3897/travaux.63.e99011 Professor Dr. Richard Willis Heard, a longtime and outstanding collaborator of the “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History of Bucharest, passed away on November 2, 2022. Richard was born on February 14, 1939 in Savannah, Georgia (USA). He was a graduate of Savannah Country Day School and attended the University of Georgia, receiving his BS and MS degree in Zoology. He received his PhD degree in Biology at the University of Southern Mississippi (1976). He worked for more than 35 years at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (The University of Southern Mississippi), passing through various hierarchical steps, up to that of Head of the Invertebrate Copyright Guțu & Petrescu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 200 Guțu & Petrescu Zoology Section. He was drawn to know the marine invertebrates of the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and western Atlantic Ocean. His research focused primarily on the study of peracarid crustaceans. Also he mentored many students and young researchers specializing in marine biology. With an open and benevolent nature, Richard Heard was generous in sharing material from his personal collections with carcinologists of research institutions from various countries, including Romania. The latter collaboration began in 1978 with Prof. Dr. Mihai Băcescu, Member of the Romanian Academy and director of the “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History. In appreciation, in 1979 M. Băcescu published a paper in which he described a new species of cumacean crustaceans, which he dedicated to Richard W. Heard (“Heteroleucon heardi n. sp. from the Mexican Gulf ”). The abstract of this paper states: In the material from the Gulf of Mexico sent by Dr. Richard W. Heard, a number of species proved to be new to science. One of these…we dedicate to Heard, who collected it. Later, a good opportunity for the carcinologists of “Grigore Antipa” Museum came from Dr. Heard, who had initiated a large-scale program on the study of the crustacean fauna of the Gulf of Mexico and the adjacent waters, a geographical area whose diversity was not well known. Therefore in 1997, one of us (I. P.) was invited to collaborate in research regarding the study of the cumaceans from the Gulf of Mexico. For this purpose, he was invited for two weeks to the laboratory in Ocean Springs. The collaboration that began during this short period of time lasted until 2010, when Petrescu and Heard published their eighth and final work. Daniel C. Roccatagliata, R. Vargas and O. Breedy were also co-authors of two of these papers. As a result of the collaboration, one genus and ten species new to science were described. A year later (1998), one of us (M. G.) received a similar invitation from Richard Heard to study tanaidacean crustaceans. Richard had some extremely interesting specimens of these peracarids, some of which had been received for study from Australia. In October 1999, Guțu worked in the laboratory in Ocean Springs for two weeks. The results of the collaboration consisted in the joint publication of two papers, one on the tanaidaceans of the Gulf of Mexico and one on a new family of apseudomorph tanaidaceans from Australian waters, out of which eight taxa new to science were described (one family, two genera and five species). In summary, as a result of the collaboration between Dr. Richard W. Heard and the two carcinologists of “Grigore Antipa” Museum, ten scientific papers were published, in which 19 taxa new to science were described (a family, three genera and 15 species). Some of the type material from these studies is stored in the collections of the museum at Bucharest. For both his contributions to the study of crustaceans, and also as a sign of gratitude for the sharing of material for study, the specialists of the “Grigore Antipa” Museum dedicated to Dr. Richard W. Heard a number of five new species to science, giving each the specific epithet heardi (listed below). At the same time, as a recognition of his merits in enriching the museum’s collections, the scientific council of the museum, at Modest Guțu’s proposal, awarded Richard W. Heard 201 Richard the diploma and medal commemorating 100 years since the appointment of Dr. Grigore Antipa to the management of the museum. This distinction was handed to him by Dr. Modest Guțu, in the presence of the director of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, Prof. Dr. Jay Grimes, and a journalist who wrote about this event in a local newspaper. With Dr. Richard W. Heard’s passing, the scientific community has lost a valuable zoologist-carcinologist and the “Grigore Antipa” Museum has lost an invaluable friend. Deepest condolences to his family. Acknowledgements The authors express their gratitude to Prof. Dr. Gary Anderson for his suggestions on the manuscript and to Prof. Dr. Sara LeCroy for the photos with Richard Heard. Also, many thanks to our colleague, Dr. Ionuț Ștefan Iorgu, who took the photograph of the commemorative medal. Ocean Springs, 1999. The moment of the handing the commemorative medal (from the left to the right: Prof. Dr. Jay Grimes, Prof. Dr. Richard Heard, Dr. Modest Guțu). 202 Guțu & Petrescu The medal awarded to Dr. Richard W. Heard by the scientific council of the “Grigore Antipa” Museum. New species dedicated to Dr. Richard W. Heard by the carcinologists of “Grigore Antipa” Museum Order Cumacea: - Heteroleucon heardi Băcescu, 1979 - Campylaspis heardi Muradian-Ciamician, 1980 - Vemacumella heardi Petrescu, 2001 Order Tanaidacea: - Calozodion heardi Guțu, 2002 - Alloleptochelia heardi Guțu, 2016 New taxa described by Dr. Richard W. Heard in collaboration with the carcinologists of “Grigore Antipa” Museum Order Cumacea: New genera: - Normjonesia Petrescu & Heard, 2001 New species: - Almyracuma bacescui Petrescu & Heard, 2004 - Cyclaspis breedyae Petrescu & Heard, 2004 - Cyclaspis vargasae Petrescu & Heard, 2004 - Cumella spinifera Petrescu & Heard, 2004 - Leucon andreiae Petrescu & Heard, 2010 - Leucon papadopoli Petrescu & Heard, 2010 - Leucon raduletzi Petrescu & Heard, 2010 - Leucon serafimae Petrescu & Heard, 2010 - Normjonesia danieli Petrescu & Heard, 2001 - Sympodomma sarahae Petrescu & Heard, 2005 Richar (...truncated)