Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

7
The Harvard Years (1953–2005)
In the fall of 1952, while in Seattle as a visiting professor at the University of
Washington, “I received a telephone call one day from Alfred Romer, then director
of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, when he asked me whether I was interested
in being appointed an Alexander Agassiz Professor at Harvard University. To say
that I would be interested would be the understatement of the week! I had long
wanted to have a teaching position, but there were really only three institutions
in the whole United States that would be suitable for my particular classification:
Harvard, Michigan, and Berkeley. In early 1953, Romer passed through New York
and we met at Grand Central Station where he told me the conditions under which
I would be working at Harvard. I agreed with everything and I soon received the
notice that I had been appointed.”
Upon my enquiry, Ernst Mayr answered (5 January 1994):
“No, my shift from New York to Harvard was not a flight. I was in a way quite
happy at the American Museum, but the position at Harvard was so infinitely better
in every possible way that I could not have rejected it. To begin with, I wanted to
live in a small town. The daily commuting from New Jersey to New York (one hour
each way) was a great sacrifice which I made so that my children could be raised in
a small country town. Also, I had no opportunity to have PhD students staying at
the AMNH. 1 Finally, the total intellectual environment was bound to be far more
stimulating at Harvard than at the AMNH, and this certainly proved to be true.
Actually, there were no ill feelings whatsoever over my leaving, because everybody
understood that this was an offer I could not possibly decline. The director,
Dr. Parr, tried very hard to make me stay, and offered all possible incentives, but
he simply couldn’t match what Harvard offered. However, the AMNH insisted that
I stay connected to the bird department as an honorary curator. Later on I was even
elected a trustee of the AMNH and I served as such for two full terms. However,
as I got older, traveling down to New York for these more or less social meetings
of trustees was getting to be too much and I therefore finally resigned. The bird
department still considers me to be part of them and requests that I annually send
my list of publications which they include in their annual report as the publications
of a member of their department. All this shows how warm our relations
have remained.”
1 Most of the zoology professors at Columbia University did not take evolution, systematics
and natural history very seriously and would not permit Mayr to have PhD students.
When word reached Columbia University about the Harvard offer, he received a telephone
call giving him permission to have students, etc. as of that day, but then it was too late.