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Decease of John Chemsak, my old friend and colleague, has greatly upset me. For a long time, we have had private correspondence and exchanged material. Due to his kindness, I have made a fairly representative collection of the longhorns from North and Central America now standing separately in the Coleoptera Department of the Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg. The value of this collection is multiplied by the presence of John's handwritten identification labels on most of the species. Our correspondence ceased when I got a position at the Zoological Institute but John, a good friend, replied immediately when I asked for his help. He responded to all my requests when I started creating this Web site, and our site is unique in possessing John's personal page and excellent photograph.
We have never met and unfortunately I have no personal impressions of John. He has sent me copies of many of his papers and helped to assemble all issues of the unique 8-volume edition "The Cerambycidae of North America", of which five volumes have been produced by him as the author or a co-author. This series shows that John was not only an excellent scientist himself but also assisted the professional growth of a pleiad of the New World entomologists. Death of John Chemsak is bereavement for the American entomology.
Andrei Lobanov, August-September 2007.
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:15:39
From: Jerry A. Powell [powellj@nature.berkeley.edu]
I regret reporting that our friend, mine of 51 years, John Chemsak, died yesterday following a long battle with increasingly serious ramifications from diabetes. Evidently his weakened heart could not rally one more time. John was a fixture in the Essig Museum for more than 40 years, and in charge of its daily management for much of that time. He continued to be a productive taxonomist after retirement in 1995 until recent months.
The family expects to host a celebration memorial in the latter half of September.
28 Aug 2007 13:44:18
From: "Lingafelter, Steve" [Steve.Lingafelter@ARS.USDA.GOV]
I just heard that John Chemsak passed away. Unfortunately I don't know any other details, perhaps others can provide them. John was part of the Cerambycidae powerhouse for North America and along with E. Gorton Linsley published more papers than anyone on the North American fauna.
This is a big blow to the students of Cerambycidae, and this discipline has had some major losses recently including Edmund Giesbert and Frank Hovore.
I'm sure our whole community has his family in our thoughts.
Steven W. Lingafelter
28 Aug 2007
From: Doug Yanega [dyanega@ucr.edu]
I just received this from Steve Lingafelter, along with a phoned request that I distribute it to various listservs. Definitely sad news for our community.
02 Sep 2007 22:37:25
From: "Bryan Eya" [b_eya@hotmail.com]
Dear Friends:
I'm very saddened to hear about the loss of Dr.Chemsak, my beloved friend and my long time mentor of field and systematic entomology. It was not too long ago that I lost my uncle (i.e., also a collector of Cerambycidae in Japan), and the passing of Dr. Chemsak is yet another great loss and departure of one of my closest counselors. It is hard to bear that I will no longer be able to see and speak to John and exchange ideas of our common interest. I own partly to Dr. Chemsak to who I am, and his impact in development of my skills and career as a scientist. I wished that he lived longer so we can work on more projects together.
Dr. Chemsak passed away on August 26th, Sunday, 11AM. I received a phone call from Ms. Hatsue Katsura at approximately 9PM that evening.
Bryan K. Eya, Ph.D.