Leonard Alan Freed, 1947–2021

Ornithology, 2023, 140, 1–2 https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukad011 Advance access publication 7 April 2023 In Memoriam In Memoriam Leonard Alan Freed, 1947–2021 Leonard (Lenny) Freed, long-time faculty member in zoology at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UH Manoa) and known for his research on the effects of avian malaria on Hawai’i’s threatened native birds, died peacefully October 24, 2021 in Honolulu. He was an Elective Member (1991) of the American Ornithological Society. Leonard Alan Freed was born July 17, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio to Irwin and Alice (nee. Winkelm) Freed. He grew up near Cleveland and developed an early love for the outdoors while hiking and camping as an Eagle Scout. After graduating from high school in Pepper Pike, Ohio, he entered the U.S. Navy ROTC program at Northwestern University, where he Copyright © American Ornithological Society 2023. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: . Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/140/3/ukad011/7110909 by Withers user on 17 September 2023 Leonard Freed holding a Dinopium woodpecker in Sri Lanka, March 2016. Photo by Rebecca Cann. earned his B.A. in sociology in 1969. During his obligatory service in the Navy, Lenny rose to the rank of Lieutenant, and served on several ships during the Vietnam War. Following his naval service, Lenny entered the graduate program in zoology at the University of Michigan. After taking Animal Behavior from Dan Janzen, he decided to pursue his long-time interest in the behavioral and evolutionary ecology of birds. Early on, his advisor Stephen Hubbell, instilled in him the importance of testing quantitative hypotheses in the field of animal behavior at a time when more observational approaches were the norm. After completing his M.S. (1975) at Michigan, Lenny followed Hubbell to the University of Iowa for his Ph.D. His dissertation research was on the breeding biology and foraging behavior of the House Wren (Troglodytes aedon). The largely experimental work provided early and surprising insights into life history tradeoffs involving the timing of weight loss in breeding females, hatching asynchrony, and predation risk. He completed his Ph.D. in 1978 and accepted a Smithsonian post-doctoral Fellowship to conduct research on tropical House Wrens at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center in Panama. There he demonstrated sexually selected infanticide on the part of both males and females in this normally monogamous species, and that long-term pair bonds were primarily due to constraints on both sexes to remain with the current mate due to limited opportunities to acquire new mates. Lenny accepted a faculty position in the Department of Zoology at UH Manoa in 1982. Four years later he was introduced by a mutual faculty friend to Rebecca Cann, a geneticist. Rebecca became his wife of 32 years, and they collaborated on many scientific projects over the ensuing decades. Lenny and Rebecca were among the first to conduct molecular genetic analyses on native Hawai’ian birds, and they developed the first polymerase chain reaction test for the presence of avian malaria from blood samples from Hawai’ian birds. Lenny was a passionate and early advocate for the conservation of Hawai’ian honeycreepers, and received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant in the late 1980s to support honeycreeper research and conservation at a time when they were still a widely overlooked group of species. The MacArthur award provided financial support to numerous graduate and undergraduate students conducting field work on threatened and endangered Hawai’ian forest bird species at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on In Memoriam 2 through the 1990s and early 2000s. By 2010, Lenny’s work at Hakalau came to an end; however, the field station is a lasting monument to Lenny’s passion for forest bird conservation and to his memory. It continues to provide housing, research, and teaching infrastructure for faculty and students across Hawai’i, as well as nationally and internationally. Between 2012 and 2016, Lenny made frequent visits to Sri Lanka to conduct field research on hybridization among Dinopium woodpeckers. There he helped indigenous scientists gain field and publishing experience. He retired as Professor Emeritus from UH Mānoa in 2017. Lenny will be remembered for the patience and gentle guidance he provided for his students. He encouraged them to be observant and take the time to get to know their study system before formally collecting data. He was a quantitative avian ecologist who also valued a deeper understanding of the ecology of the species and its habitat. Lenny had a love for small birds, large trees, Peruvian cooking, a cold beer, The Three Stooges, and late-night conversations about all things related to the evolutionary ecology of birds. His infectious laugh, really a giggle, represented pure joy. Lenny struggled with frontotemporal dementia in his last years. He was predeceased by his parents and a sister, Marcy Freed, and is survived by his wife Rebecca Cann, his daughter from a previous marriage, Becka Freed, his sister Carol Pasmore, and two nieces. Patrick Hart Department of Biology, University of Hawai’i at Hilo, Hilo, Hawai’i, USA Corresponding author: pjhart@Hawai’i.edu Memorials Editor: Ted Anderson, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/140/3/ukad011/7110909 by Withers user on 17 September 2023 the island of Hawai’i. This forest provides habitat for the most intact community of native forest birds remaining in the state. Lenny had a long-standing interest in the endangered Hawai’i ʻakepa (Loxops coccineus), a small (10 g), bright orange honeycreeper. Along with his students, he demonstrated that males of this species had a 2-year delay in plumage maturation, and also that they were the only obligate cavity nesting Hawai’ian forest bird species, making them highly dependent on the presence of old growth native forest trees. Lenny oversaw a long-term bird banding study at Hakalau that began in the late 1980s and contributed greatly to our understanding of temporal patterns in morphological and health-related variables such as fat levels, molt, parasite load, and presence of disease. His 2005 paper “Increase in avian malaria at upper elevation in Hawai’i” (The Condor 107:753–764) provided a glimpse into how malaria may be expanding into high-elevation, formerly disease-free refugia at Hakalau due to climate change. The MacArthur grant and grants from the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency, also provided funding for the construction of the University of Hawai’i Hakalau Forest Biological Field Station in a high-elevation Hawai’ian wet forest on Maunakea volcano. Construction of this remote field station began in 1995, and was completed after 3 years by a large group of contractors, carpenters, and student volunteers. 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