Frances C. James, An Ornithologist with a Propensity for Skepticism
Contributed by William Dritschilo Frances Crews James, September 29, 1930- For her doctoral dissertation, “Fran” James questioned a hoary ecological shibboleth, correcting Ernst Mayr with a bit of German translation in the process. Although she was very much on the sidelines of the fracas that earned some of her more vocal colleagues at Florida State University the epithet, “Tallahassee mafia”—which…