Memorial page
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Obituary of Frank Hovore
(19?? - September 22, 2006)
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Taxonomic specialization: |
Coleoptera, Cerambycidae
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Subject: Frank Hovore
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 12:34:54 -0700
From: Barney Streit
Hello Everyone,
It is with deep regret that I inform the group of the passing of Frank
Hovore. Frank suffered a heart attack while collecting in Ecuador with Dick
Penrose. Though known primarily for his work in the Cerambycidae, Frank was
also in the process of revising the scarab genus (and now family) Pleocoma
(rain beeltes). We hope to have more information about Frank in the
forthcoming issue of the Scarabs newsletter.
Sincerely,
Barney D. Streit
================================================================
Subject: Bad news, passing of Frank Hovore
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 13:42:13 -0400
From: "steve Lingafelter"
I have terrible news to convey. Frank Hovore died last night of a heart attack while collecting in a remote part of
Ecuador. Dick Penrose was with him when he died and is there helping to make arrangements for Frank's return to the U. S.
Frank's son is flying to Quito tonight.
This is a real tragedy to all of us who have benefitted from Frank's unsurpassed knowledge of Neotropical longhorned
beetles as well as Pleocoma rain beetles. His death will leave a real void to the study of Neotropical Entomology. It's
impossible to list here all the ways Frank has influenced us as colleagues, students, and friends, and I hope we can each
send some notes of our experiences with Frank over the weeks to come.
Just two nights ago, I gave a presentation at the National Botanic Garden to a diverse audience. For part of my
presentation, I included a movie clip of Frank collecting Titanus that was featured in the behind the scenes segment of the
British version of Attenborough's, "Life in the Undergrowth". The audience cracked up and was truly captivated at the
engaging way in which Frank described the enormous beetle and the thrill of seeking it.
I am really going to miss Frank. While I didn't correspond with him as much as I should have, I always thought of him, and
just a few days ago Ian Swift, Annie Ray, and Gino Nearns were at my house talking of Frank's current trip.
While we certainly grieve his loss, we are all comforted by the fact that he died doing exactly what he loved more than
anything. He did live a very enviable and exciting life. Rest in peace, Frank.
Steve
================================================================
From: Michael A. Ivie [mailto:mivie@montana.edu]
Sent: Sunday, 24 September 2006 4:29 AM
Subject: Re: Bad news, passing of Frank Hovore
What a huge and tragic shock! This is already a bad year, but Frank?
What will we do without him?
Mike Ivie
================================================================
Subject: Correct Date and Address of Memorial Service for Frank Hovore
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:47:25 -0400
From: "steve Lingafelter"
Dear Cerambyxers,
Due to a bad cell phone connection, I misunderstood the date: It is the 7th (NOT the 2nd). So please disregard the
previous email. The date below is correct. I have also provided the exact address of the location of the Memorial
Service. Sorry for the confusion.
Memorial Service for Frank Hovore:
Saturday October 7
11-4 pm
Robinson Ranch Country Club and Golf Course
27734 Sand Canyon Rd
Canyon Country, CA 91387
(661) 252-8484
For further information or directions:
Call or write Ian Swift at Placerita Canyon Nature Center
Phone: (661)-259-7721
Email: iswift@lacountyparks.org
Please feel free to send cards to Frank's family to:
Kathy Hovore
27750 Coldsprings Place
Valencia California 91354
In Lieu of flowers, Kathy asks to make donations to the INBIO scholarship fund for Latin American Students. Please make
checks payable to Kathy and she will forward the money to the right place.
Ian thanks everyone for their kindness.
================================================================
From: On Behalf Of Lee Dyer
Sent: Wednesday, 27 September 2006 6:18 AM
Subject: Frank Hovore
I apologize if the story below has already been posted on entomolog. I hadn't seen the story until a friend sent it to me today. Frank Hovore was an a great coleopterist and
will be missed.
Article Last Updated: 09/25/2006 07:29:17 PM PDT
Nature center wizard, 61, dies
Hovore was doing research in Ecuador
BY JUDY O'ROURKE, Staff Writer
SANTA CLARITA - Frank Hovore, the Santa Clarita Valley's environmental
conscience, died over the weekend in Ecuador where he was studying
beetles, his passion.
The former director of the county's natural areas, including Placerita
Canyon, he was a consultant who prepared environmental impact reports -
and lost some development jobs because he took his work so seriously.
Hovore manned the Placerita Canyon Nature Center's first incarnation - a
school bus in the park - and did not stray far for 35 years. He helped
create the center's education program, which reaches about 10,000
schoolchildren a year. He trained docents, served on the foundation's
board and was a volunteer until his death.
"I knew Frank for 18 years, since I was 10 years old," said Ian Swift, the
center's director and supervisor of the 350-acre natural park. "Frank was my friend and colleague and just one of the best guys I've known ever. He
taught me everything I know." Hovore, 61, died Friday night, apparently from a heart attack.
"He died quickly in the place he loved more than any place in the world - in Ecuador, the Amazon - and doing what he loved to do more than anything
in the world: He was studying insects," Swift said. Hovore, born in El Centro, had been diagnosed years ago with prostate
cancer. He is survived by his son, Tom Hovore, 33, who lives in
Scottsdale, Ariz., and daughter, Holly of Santa Clarita, whose 28th
birthday was Sunday.
The center, which features natural history exhibits and is due for a $2
million renovation this fall, is near one of the first spots where gold
was found in California. Hovore was a well-loved fixture at the center and
beyond.
"Frank had a unique capability to be able to teach at the layman's level without having to resort to scientific terms and theories," said Jim
Southwell, president of the Placerita Canyon Nature Center Association,
the center's volunteer arm. "He could very clearly make you understand the importance of the ecology and how it fit in with your daily life."
Hovore inspired Southwell to establish the center's foundation, which
raises money for the volunteer organization.
In Hovore's home office, slim drawers are jammed with more than 100,000
beetle specimens from all over the Western Hemisphere.
Hovore was a scientific adviser on David Attenborough's 2005 documentary
series "Life in the Undergrowth," and he had a hands-on role - albeit
behind the scenes - in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Hovore was
enlisted by director Steven Spielberg to trek to Central America to
collect insects for the famous cave scene, Swift said.
As a park naturalist and natural-areas supervisor for the Los Angeles
County Department of Parks and Recreation for 23 years, Hovore managed
resources and operations for more than 6,500 acres of county parkland,
sanctuaries and open space.
He retired from county government in 1994 and then founded Frank Hovore &
Associates, a biological consulting firm that provided planning for parks,
plant and animal surveys, environmental education and habitat conservation
plans.
Hovore earned a bachelor's degree in biology and English at California
State University, Northridge, in 1971, worked as an adjunct biology
professor at his alma mater and was a Ph.D. candidate in evolutionary
biology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
For more than a decade, he served on the Los Angeles County Regional
Planning Commission's Significant Ecological Areas Technical Advisory
Committee.
Sometimes he was a thorn in the side of developers with big plans. Often
he was an eye in the sky for bureaucrats who spend most of their time
indoors.
Hovore's testimony in Sacramento helped persuade lawmakers to lay out $150
million for the former Ahmanson Ranch, a development site on the western
edge of the San Fernando Valley now preserved as parkland.
"Frank's expert testimony greatly helped the (Santa Monica Mountains) Conservancy to convince our Sacramento friends that there was a
science-based rationale for the purchase and preservation of the
(property,)" said Rorie Skei, the conservancy's chief deputy director. In late 2003, the conservancy bought the nearly 3,000-acre property,
settling a long-standing environmental and developmental battle, Skei
said. The Wildlife Conservation Board, a state agency, furnished a $135
million grant for the purchase.
As a member of the technical advisory committee, Hovore weighed in on many
developments proposed by The Newhall Land and Farming Company, pushing for
environmental sensitivity in the planning stages.
"We found him to be a very passionate advocate for his positions," said
Marlee Lauffer, the company's spokeswoman. Hovore also worked as a
consultant to the company at times.
On his own time, he traveled widely for research on New World beetles
deemed essential to forest ecosystems worldwide.
"He was a world-class scientist working on his group of insects, even though he did not have a scientific position," said Brian Brown, curator
of entomology for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
"Experts on insect taxonomy are becoming rarer and rarer, and so his loss is even more keenly felt."
The manager of the museum's bird collection touted Hovore's understanding
of insects, birds and plants and of the relationships among them.
Hovore's friend Henry Schultz, vice chairman of the Santa Clarita Sierra
Club, said Hovore was probably the top expert on local flora and fauna.
Schultz's last outing with Hovore was at Tick Canyon in the eastern part
of town.
"He would open up a plant and show me the insects inside - and show me what they did and why they did it," Schultz said softly. "He could say
`That's a song sparrow over there' without actually seeing it. He could
recognize its song patterns." Teresa Savaikie, a local environmentalist often vocal about proposed
developments, spent many hours with Hovore in the field and considered him
a friend as well as a mentor.
"When I would feel frustrated about things, whenever I wanted to give up on something, he encouraged me," said Savaikie, who saw the scientist's
lighter side.
"He was really fun to be out in the field with. He was a crack-up," she
said. "He would make fun of you, tease you. It was like having a pesky older brother."
Tom Hovore is retrieving his father's body from Ecuador, Swift said.
================================================================
Subject: Message from Gerard Tavakilian
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 09:21:39 -0400
From: "steve Lingafelter"
I have lost a very good friend and the best longhorn collector I ever
met. He received me like a brother when I visited him in 1992. Each time
he came collecting in french Guiana he incredibly discovered many unseen
species. He had a rare energy and his great intellingence was well used
to understand where the longhorns are hidden. I had the luck and the
opportunity to accompany him in the deep forest and we always had a
great pleasure to share these undescriptible moments.
We can say also that we have lost the most helpful colleague federating
all the entomologists working on american continent for neotropical species.
I still have many new species to name after him and seing this very
strong guy missing so abruptly we realize that our time is very short
down here. At least we can say he had a passionating life.
While resting in peace he is still alive and terribly present in our
memories
Gerard
================================================================
Subject: Frank Hovore
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 09:13:44 -0400
From: "Thomas, Mike"
Shortly after the publication of my very first scientific paper nearly
30 years ago, I received a letter from Frank Hovore pointing out my
mistakes and missing references. It was done in such a helpful way that
there was no sting involved and we corresponded off and on ever since.
At that early date date Frank already was a Research Associate of the
Florida State Collection of Arthropods and was a strong supporter of the
program here; his many donations over the years helped make the
cerambycid collection what it is today.
Unfortunately, we only ever got to meet face-to-face a few times but I
did have the privilege of spending a day collecting cerambycids with
him. In the presence of such passion and energy, one could only stand
back and admire. And I think it was that bounding enthusiasm that was
Frank's trademark. It shined out of his correspondence and especially in
his video appearances, from an early one I remember of him showing off
an Eleodes at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center to his most recent one
collecting Titanus on the Attenborough video.
I'll miss Frank; we all will miss him, and coleopterology will be the
poorer for his absence.
M.C. Thomas, Ph.D.
Florida State Collection of Arthropods
Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
P.O. Box 147100
Gainesville, FL 32614-7100 U.S.A.
Telephone: (352) 372-3505; e-mail: thomasm@doacs.state.fl.us
================================================================
Subject: Frank Hovore
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 09:54:26 -0400
From: Andrew Smith
Hi Everyone - There was a nice article on Frank in the LA Daily News (pasted below). It is quite interesting - I didn't know much about the local work Frank did
with outreach and conservation around the LA area. It even says that he was a consultant on one of the Indiana Jones movies! On my levels, this is a tremendous
loss.
A memorial service has been announced on Frank's website for those who might attend. Please see: http://www.hovore.com/
Sincerely,
Andrew
Nature center wizard, 61, dies
Hovore was doing research in Ecuador
BY JUDY O'ROURKE, Staff Writer
SANTA CLARITA - Frank Hovore, the Santa Clarita Valley's environmental conscience, died over the weekend in Ecuador where he was studying beetles, his
passion.
The former director of the county's natural areas, including Placerita Canyon, he was a consultant who prepared environmental impact reports - and lost some
development jobs because he took his work so seriously.
Hovore manned the Placerita Canyon Nature Center's first incarnation - a school bus in the park - and did not stray far for 35 years. He helped create the center's
education program, which reaches about 10,000 schoolchildren a year. He trained docents, served on the foundation's board and was a volunteer until his death.
"I knew Frank for 18 years, since I was 10 years old," said Ian Swift, the center's director and supervisor of the 350-acre natural park. "Frank was my friend and colleague and just one of the best guys I've known ever. He taught me everything I know."
Hovore, 61, died Friday night, apparently from a heart attack.
"He died quickly in the place he loved more than any place in the world - in Ecuador, the Amazon - and doing what he loved to do more than anything in the world: He was studying insects," Swift said.
Hovore, born in El Centro, had been diagnosed years ago with prostate cancer. He is survived by his son, Tom Hovore, 33, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and
daughter, Holly of Santa Clarita, whose 28th birthday was Sunday.
The center, which features natural history exhibits and is due for a $2 million renovation this fall, is near one of the first spots where gold was found in California.
Hovore was a well-loved fixture at the center and beyond.
"Frank had a unique capability to be able to teach at the layman's level without having to resort to scientific terms and theories," said Jim Southwell, president of the
Placerita Canyon Nature Center Association, the center's volunteer arm. "He could very clearly make you understand the importance of the ecology and how it fit in with your daily life."
Hovore inspired Southwell to establish the center's foundation, which raises money for the volunteer organization.
In Hovore's home office, slim drawers are jammed with more than 100,000 beetle specimens from all over the Western Hemisphere.
Hovore was a scientific adviser on David Attenborough's 2005 documentary series "Life in the Undergrowth," and he had a hands-on role - albeit behind the scenes
- in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Hovore was enlisted by director Steven Spielberg to trek to Central America to collect insects for the famous cave
scene, Swift said.
As a park naturalist and natural-areas supervisor for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation for 23 years, Hovore managed resources and
operations for more than 6,500 acres of county parkland, sanctuaries and open space.
He retired from county government in 1994 and then founded Frank Hovore & Associates, a biological consulting firm that provided planning for parks, plant and
animal surveys, environmental education and habitat conservation plans.
Hovore earned a bachelor's degree in biology and English at California State University, Northridge, in 1971, worked as an adjunct biology professor at his alma
mater and was a Ph.D. candidate in evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
For more than a decade, he served on the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission's Significant Ecological Areas Technical Advertisement Advisory
Committee.
Sometimes he was a thorn in the side of developers with big plans. Often he was an eye in the sky for bureaucrats who spend most of their time indoors.
Hovore's testimony in Sacramento helped persuade lawmakers to lay out $150 million for the former Ahmanson Ranch, a development site on the western edge of
the San Fernando Valley now preserved as parkland.
"Frank's expert testimony greatly helped the (Santa Monica Mountains) Conservancy to convince our Sacramento friends that there was a science-based rationale for the purchase and preservation of the (property,)" said Rorie Skei, the conservancy's chief deputy director.
In late 2003, the conservancy bought the nearly 3,000-acre property, settling a long-standing environmental and developmental battle, Skei said. The Wildlife
Conservation Board, a state agency, furnished a $135 million grant for the purchase.
As a member of the technical advisory committee, Hovore weighed in on many developments proposed by The Newhall Land and Farming Company, pushing for
environmental sensitivity in the planning stages.
"We found him to be a very passionate advocate for his positions," said Marlee Lauffer, the company's spokeswoman. Hovore also worked as a consultant to the
company at times.
On his own time, he traveled widely for research on New World beetles deemed essential to forest ecosystems worldwide.
"He was a world-class scientist working on his group of insects, even though he did not have a scientific position," said Brian Brown, curator of entomology for the
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. "Experts on insect taxonomy are becoming rarer and rarer, and so his loss is even more keenly felt."
The manager of the museum's bird collection touted Hovore's understanding of insects, birds and plants and of the relationships among them.
Hovore's friend Henry Schultz, vice chairman of the Santa Clarita Sierra Club, said Hovore was probably the top expert on local flora and fauna. Schultz's last outing
with Hovore was at Tick Canyon in the eastern part of town.
"He would open up a plant and show me the insects inside - and show me what they did and why they did it," Schultz said softly. "He could say `That's a song sparrow over there' without actually seeing it. He could recognize its song patterns."
Teresa Savaikie, a local environmentalist often vocal about proposed developments, spent many hours with Hovore in the field and considered him a friend as well
as a mentor.
"When I would feel frustrated about things, whenever I wanted to give up on something, he encouraged me," said Savaikie, who saw the scientist's lighter side.
"He was really fun to be out in the field with. He was a crack-up," she said. "He would make fun of you, tease you. It was like having a pesky older brother."
Tom Hovore is retrieving his father's body from Ecuador, Swift said.
Judy.rework@dailynews.com
(661) 257-5255
Dr. Andrew B. T. Smith
Research Associate
Canadian Museum of Nature
P.O. Box 3443, Station D
Ottawa, ON, K1P 6P4
CANADA
Phone: (613) 364-4070
E-mail: asmith@unlserve.unl.edu or asmith@mus-nature.ca
http://www.museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/andrewsm.htm
================================================================
Subject: The Passing of Frank Hovore
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:16:37 -0700
From: Frank Hovore
To all of Frank's friends and family -
My father, Frank Hovore, passed away on September 22, 2006 while
collecting insects outside of Tena, Ecuador. Frank was collecting in
the Amazon with his dear friend, Dick Penrose, when he suffered a
massive heart attack. His passing was almost immediate and he did
not suffer at all. My family will return to Ecuador in the spring to
spread my father's ashes in the Amazon - as he wished.
My father had a tremendous world-wide network of friends and I hope
this email reaches everyone. He was a brilliant scientist and loving
father. He will be missed dearly.
The family will have a memorial for Frank on Saturday, Ocotber 7,
2006 at Robinson Ranch Golf Course in Santa Clarita, CA. The
memorial will begin at 11am and all are welcome. In lieu of flowers
the family asks that donations be made to the Frank Hovore Estate.
All proceeds will go directly to the Frank Hovore Scholarship Fund
which provides scholarships for tropical entomology students. Please
send donations (and make payable) to:
Tom Hovore - Frank Hovore Estate
10871 E. Palm Ridge Dr
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
or via Paypal at Thovore@yahoo.com
Thank you all for your love and support. I can be reached at
thovore@yahoo.com or (480) 205-6927.
Tom Hovore and Family
================================================================
Subject: Re: Frank Hovore
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:16:22 -0400
From: Amy Berkov
Have any other cerambycid enthusiasts carefully hoarded any of FrankÒs peerless email messages?
I only met Frank in person once: with Tavakilian in French Guiana, where I completed a cerambycid rearing study. We maintained a fairly regular, often highly
entertaining, email correspondance over the next ten years. His messages were consistently smart, funny, and thought-provoking. I certainly learned a lot... Frank
was always trying to get me out to Beetlebash (as a non-driver, IÒm a California-phobe); I was always trying to get into the field with (in TavakilianÒs words) Óthe
worldÒs best cerambycid collector.Ô IÒm very sad right now, but agree with Steve that it is a consolation that Frank died doing what he most loved.
Here are a couple short excerpts from Frank's email messages:
Ah, so they are full of worms....
I gave this some thought the other day, and two possibilities entered my noggin. One would be that the beetles sequester something from the
environment by rubbing sap or whatever with their antennal tips, and the substance is retained in the pores, where it "stings" when the tips are jabbed
into something soft; two, it is probable that many species of bycids are toxic by virtue of host plant chemistry and larval sequestration, and that their
hemolymph might be irritating-- if the antennae were jabbed into something hard enough to cause leakage from thin spots in the integumental wall, then
you'd have the same effect. A less-persuasive argument would be that they, like meloids, can rupture their intersegmental membranes (or other thin
spots in the chitin) and leak blood out of them, and that these guys simply do so in their antennae. I have seen nothing in all of the bycids I have handled
to suggest that any of these remote possibilities is realistic, but the first one seems not too far-fetched. Lots of insects gather gunk from plants on their
bodies, and use it to make themselve distateful or irritating, or sticky, or whatever.
Now, the next part of the question is-- are using a poor model for this assessment, by thinking that because our supersensitive pinkies feel it, that it
would be useful in any way against another arthropod (spider, mantis, decticine cricket) or a lizard or bird? What if the antennae are used in mating to
stroke and poke the partner, perhaps releasing a pheromone.
.... .... ....
Your new synthesis sounds better, but yes, wordy. I still think it's a great phlyogenetic project to infer what came first...
The wordy part was intentional. I was being cute, trying to woo you to my thesis. Don't hold it against me. I can be pithy. Shorter and shorter. I can.
Honest. See? Pithy. Right?
If anyone else has archived messages that they would like to share, I would be very happy to serve as collection point, and put together a compendum of FrankÒs
greatest hits...
Amy Berkov
City College of New York
Dept. Biology, Marshak J526
Convent Avenue @ 138 Street
New York, NY 10031
and
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
================================================================
Subject: FRANK HOVORE
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 12:25:09 -0400
From: " Julio Micheli"
Late in 1979 Frank saw an ad for an exchange of beetles which I had placed
in Coleopterists Bulletin and he wrote to me. We started corresponding and
we got to exchange some bycids. During the 1980s our letters would be coming
and going at the same time, and I would always be looking forward to his
next one. I enjoyed Frank's letters very much. They were always very long
and he would use any type of paper, even the ruled yellow kind that comes
in a pad. Sometimes he would continue writing around the borders (I have
kept most of those letters). We became good friends. With the coming of
computers and e-mails, we switched. Now there was no writing around the
borders, but his e-mails were always enjoyed to the fullest.
He would usually sign them as Paco.
Along the years I learned a lot from Frank. He was very supportive of my
entomological projects; and I relied on his expertise, ideas and opinions on
cerambycids. I am glad we published a paper together. Lately I was
thinking of a project with my daughter, Charyn, and I told her I would ask
Frank to join us on it. I did not get to ask him, though. Recently, Charyn
stayed a few days at Frank's. I am glad she met him.
Every year I would ask Frank when was it he would be coming to Puerto Rico,
and he would say, "Not this year, maybe next year."
I miss not having met Frank in person. I will alway miss him.
Descansa en paz amigo Paco.
Julio Micheli
-----------------------------
Julio A. Micheli
1321 Baldorioty Street
Ponce, PR 00717-1117
USA
E-mail: gymnos@coqui.net
http://www.JulioMicheli.com
================================================================
Subject: Excerpts from Frank Hovore Letters
Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2006 13:59:19 -0400
From: "steve Lingafelter"
Cerambyxers,
It's great to read people's thoughts and memories of Frank. I really enjoy the excerpts of his letters that Amy shared.
I've got a folder of correspondence about an inch thick. It started in 1990 when I contacted Frank about help when I was
starting my Masters Thesis. I have my original letter since Frank returned it, covered with his handwritten notes, and
like Julio said, in all the margins and available blank spaces! In that letter, Frank introduced me to many of the bycid
people who could help on my longhorned beetles of north Texas thesis. At this time Frank was heavy into his Costa Rica &
Panama work and mentioned he had just gotten back from there, and though it was a dry year, he had collected 450 species of
longhorns!
Here's a summary of a few exchanges followed by excerpts from some of his letters:
I knew very little about longhorned beetles at that time, so I was very glad he had taken the time to try and push me in
the right direction. In 1990 I first met Frank at the ESA meeting in New Orleans. He later wrote, "You have an interesting situation right now, as you are the only undergraduate of whom I am aware studying this important group."
Translation: Don't screw it up!!!
In another note in 1993, after I had started my Ph. D. at Kansas and had taken my first trip outside of the US, to Costa
Rica, I asked Frank for help with some of the ID's. He wrote, "I'm having some problems in my left eye....better send your stuff quick--while I can still see it!"
On January 4, 1999 he wrote about visiting Ed Giesbert towards the end of his illness: "Life is what it is, sexually transmitted and always fatal. But it really yanks at me to see him being whittled away by this shit." On May 11 of that
year, many of us remember the wonderful tribute he wrote about Giesbert, announcing his death: "Ed, for those of you who may not have known him personally, was a most vigourous student of longhorns, an indefatigable collector with a superb
"instinct" for the quest, a terrifically talented illustrator, excellent writer, and first-rate taxonomist." This certainly applies to Frank, too. Athough he did not illustrate as profusely as Giesbert, he definitely had the talent, as
those who have visited him know.
On May 12, right after Ed died, Frank wrote me after finding out he had prostate cancer, "Hey, amigo, stay young as long as you can. Getting old is for shit."
In January, 2001, he wrote about my dad dying, and inviting me to the beetle bash: "Sorry to hear about your father--the process of getting older carries some very unfortunate happenings the longer you do it. But, feel free to bring your
mom...moms are always welcome here."
January 2002, he wrote again advertising his upcoming beetle-bash: "There is very limited free floor space and couches, and I recommend the motel unless you absolutely enjoy morning kisses from miniature schnauzers with really fine doggy breath."
And in May, 2002, Frank writes of a trip to Puerto Rico: "I still have never been there, despite many invitations from Micheli. I will need to put it on my lest for next year or so, if I live that long."
I spent this morning going through all the letters and found him consistently supportive of me from when I knew nothing
about longhorned beetles, to when I started my Ph. D., to when I started my job, to when I became more established in the
community. I was very glad to have made two trips to his house for his west-coast beetle bash (and I got the award one
year for "longest distance traveled"). I was very pleased to have salvaged the ESA bycid symposium that was sabotaged by
the hurricane last year. I was able to convince Frank and most of the others to come to the Smithsonian, and we had a
wonderful week of giving talks and playing in the collection. It was a blast having most everyone at my house and getting
to see Frank on that personal level.
Definitely lots of good memories for the last 16 years!
Steve
"Wherever you go, there shall you be, and there shall be the bycids, I am sure."
Frank Hovore -- September, 2004
______________________
Steven W. Lingafelter, Ph. D.
Systematic Entomology Lab, USDA
MRC-I68
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institute PO Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Phone: 202-382-1793
Email: slingafe@sel.barc.usda.gov
================================================================
Last updated: October 11, 2006.
