Farish A. Jenkins Jr., 72
Whether it was digging in the Canadian Arctic, providing guidance to colleagues, or spending hours producing chalkboard illustrations for the next day’s lecture, Farish A. Jenkins Jr. was deeply committed to probing the mysteries of evolutionary biology, while engaging and inspiring his students — a number of whom would become his colleagues. Jenkins, a Harvard professor of biology for more than 40 years, and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, was a mentor and friend to many. His death at age 72 on Nov. 11, brought sadness to the Harvard community and beyond. “In a University full of unique individuals, he was certainly one of a kind,” said James Hanken, Harvard professor of biology and director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Jenkins was a distinguished vertebrate paleontologist, renowned for his fieldwork, who made seminal discoveries in respiratory physiology, bird flight, and...