"T. Keith Philips on Henry Howden" - к 90-летию со дня рождения Генри Хаудена

My first encounter with Henry Howden was while I was an undergrad at Carleton University. Henry taught courses in biogeography and insect diversity. I took his two courses he offered on biogeography but took neither his insect course, nor the one Stewart Peck offered as I thought I already knew a lot about insects! How little I knew. But Henry's courses in biogeography were a delight and very educational. The first in the series emphasized North America, while the second was global in outlook. The aspect I particularly remember were the labs,- most of which consisted of slide shows showing various places he had visited in his attempt to try and teach us something about the distributions of organisms on the planet.

After my third year, I caught wind of a possible summer job as an insect technician in the Howden lab. I went to see him and he asked me about my background in entomology. I told him about the insect collection I started with my father's encouragement when I was seven years old at the family cottage on Lake Mazinaw, a place I spent summers as a child. I sometimes wonder what I would be doing now if my insect collection hobby never occurred. Regardless, Henry hired me on the spot and I started working for him that summer as a technician. The next summer the job started up again for me. It was quite a nice place to work with all the various people around. - this included folks like the then students Bruce Gill, Mike Kaulbars, Dorothy Lindeman as well as Lou Ling, an SEM technician who functioned in part as Henry's technician as well. As well, there was Stewart Peck across the hall and Bert Nesbitt, the acarologist who, after he got to know me, would periodically say, "Keith why don't you go to grad school?"

After graduation, I continued working in the lab after the summer ended. The plan was to keep working for a year, save up money, and then travel with Linda (now my spouse) for an extended trip in Asia. As it turned out, we delayed the trip due to some good contracts my wife received for her production company. So I ended up working for about two years in the Howden lab.

Before leaving for our travels, I started sending out inquires to potential grad schools. One was Montana State, where Mike Ivie had gotten hold of my letter. He called up Henry to ask about me and who I was. Henry replied, "well, he is in the next room. Would you like to speak to him yourself?" That started me on the path to Bozeman, Montana. Henry, of course, was the one who wrote me the needed letters of recommendation for graduate school.

One other job I did for Henry was house sit a few times while he and Ann were away on some of their many adventures. For those of you that visited his house, you will remember the one room in particular that was filled with cabinets and specimens. I asked about taking pictures of some of the specimens while there and he readily agreed; I had been his trusted technician for a while. In particular, I remember taking pictures of some of the lucanids, like Phalacrognathus muelleri , the rainbow stag beetle, and various dynastine scarabs. - Oh what fun that was in the evening!

One funny evening I have to mention was one time when I went over for dinner. Vegetables were being served from serving dishes. One had a broken handle but it had been glued back on by Henry. Well this dish was passed to me and during the process the handle fell off and it landed on the table! It was a bit humorous as there was not much of a mess with an upright landing, but Ann was not amused. She cussed out Henry for attempting to do a repair instead of throwing the dish in the trash.

My interactions with Henry during later years typically involved visiting during meetings or sharing a drink with him. I fondly remember doing just that the last time I saw him in Ottawa during the summer of 2013 with his wife Ann, and Bruce and Joce Gill. It was a pleasure talking with him about some old times and adventures we had. Always the collector, he suggested that I check out an interesting sandy soil locality to collect in Tennessee near where I currently live in south central Kentucky.

Both my father initially, and Henry later during my undergraduate career were instrumental in solidifying my career goals in systematic entomology. From my first interaction with Henry at an open house session at Carleton University where he had laid out several drawers of large beetles (I still remember the large Odontoloma lucanids!), to hiring me to work in his lab, to helping and supporting me so I could reach my future goals, he was critical to my success. Plus, just working in his lab and seeing what fun his grad students were having, going to seminars during work time, and getting a glimpse of the obviously great life of a systematic entomologist with a couple of adventure trips each year- wow! I know in some ways my wife would have preferred it if I had become a little more applied and hence more marketable for jobs, but the life as an insect systematist at a university is a pretty good place to end up, even in Kentucky! For this I largely have to thank Henry Howden and I will be forever grateful to him for thesupport and enthusiasm he passed on to me!