James Bond (ornithologist)
| James Bond | |
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Portrait of James Bond in 1974
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| Born |
January 4, 1900 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | February 14, 1989 (aged 89) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Ornithologist |
| Known for | Caribbean Ornithology, namesake for Ian Fleming's James Bond |
James Bond (January 4, 1900 – February 14, 1989) was a leading American ornithologist, an expert on the birds of the Caribbean. His name was appropriated by writer Ian Fleming for his fictional spy of the same name.
Bond was born on January 4, 1900 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Margaret Reeves (Tyson) and Francis Edward Bond. His interest in natural history was spurred by an expedition his father undertook in 1911 to the Orinoco Delta. Bond was originally educated at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, but after the death of his mother he moved with his father to England in 1914. There he studied at Harrow and later Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a B.A. in 1922 and was the sole American member of the Pitt Club. After graduating he moved back to the United States and worked for a banking firm for three years in Philadelphia. An interest in natural history prompted him to quit and accept a place on an expedition to the Amazon run by the Academy of Natural Sciences. Subsequently he worked as an ornithologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences in that city, rising to become curator of ornithology there. He was an expert in Caribbean birds and wrote the definitive book on the subject: Birds of the West Indies, first published in 1936.
Bond won the Institute of Jamaica's Musgrave Medal in 1952; the Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1954; and the Leidy Award of the Academy of Natural Sciences in 1975. He died in the Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia at age 89. He is interred in the church yard at Church of the Messiah in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania. Bond is survived by his wife; a stepdaughter, Mary Eiseman, and six stepgrandchildren.
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