1011. My brother-in-law, the well-known Scientist Dr. Andrew Barnum -- a visit with him last week!
My dear brother-in-law, Dr. Andrew Barnum (Andy to me) is 93 years old, and still working 4 hours each week day! I was in St. George last week, and went with my daughter Delsy to visit him at his home. Then the next day, Wednesday, March 7, 2018, we went to his science museum at Dixie State University.
A 2 headed calf, born somewhere in the area, and lived a short time. He knows all the dates, and places they came from by memory! He can tell you about each entry. He has an amazing memory!
This statue of him in the background was unveiled on October 27, 2017, on the south side of the Science Building on campus. He insisted on holding Delsy's hand in the picture.
The story about it is here:
http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2017/10/28/jmr-longtime-dixie-state-biology-professor-barnum-honored-with-bronze-statue/#.Wf87GWhSyUk
Andy was married during World War II to my half sister, Delsy, and we named my daughter above, after her. She passed away soon after he returned from the war, and he later married another lovely woman, and had 4 daughters, one of which he is living with.
I must say here that he is a gentleman of the old school! When we went to his home he insisted on escorting us out to our car and opening the door! He is such a polite, kind and humble man, who has earned quite a lot of honors in Science! His science classes have taught many pre-medical doctors, etc. It has been the best in the state!
He taught at Dixie College, when it was a 2 year school, and has collected many fascinating specimens. I will explain a bit about each one. He told me that many years ago, when someone heard about his developing museum, they came to see it, and said it was the best college museum this side of the Mississippi. It still is!
The 2 signs above are outside the door on the main floor of the Science Building.
A porcupine on the left, and the only albino porcupine ever found on the right, all stuffed -- taxidermy!
The 6 foot alligator, found in the Virgin River south of St. George, and brought to him. More is told of it in the article below by Marta Murvosh.
A baby pig with 8 legs, which didn't live long. Delsy actually got sick for a day or two from smelling the formaldehyde in this and other bottles! It didn't bother me, and apparently doesn't bother him, as he has spent years with them.
One of the latest collections he is classifying, and labeling, with his microcsope there! He goes 4 hours each day Monday through Friday. He always has work to do!
You can see the small labels on many insects, mosquitoes, etc. One of his great contributions has been studying mosquitoes, especially with the West Nile Virus, and helping to keep them out of the area around St. George, and other places.
Part of his collection, and reference book.
A live snake that lives in the museum! -- Well secured!
In several cabinets with many shelves he has stuffed birds in -- over 900 species in all!
He was proud of this bird, which was found alone in California, a long way from where it originated.
A very interesting specimen someone gave to him. It is 2 heads of deer, and their antlers are intertwined. They probably were fighting, and got locked, couldn't move, and actually died from it!
An example of many displays he has, this one butterflies!
Another local snake, alive in its cage!
I want to include an article published in 1996. He had taught at Dixie for almost 40 years at that time.
40-YEAR TENURE AT DIXIE INCLUDES GATORS, HOPPERS
-- in the Deseret News...
In his almost 40 years at Dixie College, Andrew Barnum has taught 29 different biology classes, influenced thousands of students, served as college vice president and befriended one alligator. A 6-foot-long one, to be exact.Stuffed, it stares at Barnum from the top of a wooden cabinet in the college's life science museum.
The alligator led an adventurous life. It was one of two released into the Virgin River in 1959 by a colleague of Barnum who suddenly found himself unable to care for them.
"He didn't think they would survive the winter," Barnum said.
The alligators proved him wrong. One lived six years before meeting its fate at the hands of a farmer who shot it in an irrigation ditch. The second alligator fared better and met Barnum in 1970.
"Memorial Day at 6 a.m., I received a telephone call from one of the Bloomington Golf Course pros: `We have a 6-foot alligator. What should we do with it?' I thought they were joking," Barnum said.
When Barnum arrived at the golf course, the golfer had the reptile tied by its hind leg. Barnum loaded it into the back of his station wagon and took it to the college.
The alligator, who was never named, lived for a year in the college's desert garden, surrounded by the life science building and visitors. Barnum even built it a cave to hibernate in, he said.
Ultimately, the water in the garden's pool froze, and the alligator died of dehydration. Barnum, who had tamed the reptile so he could tickle its nose and feed it meat, was upset.
But caring for the alligator was probably the least of Barnum's duties at the college. He has taught classes in the life sciences since 1959.
The 71-year-old professor retired last year, but students can't tell because he still teaches.
"I can't quit cold turkey," he said. "I'm gradually easing up."
While Barnum's love of teaching is not unusual for Dixie professors, his doctorate degree is. Generally, doctorates work at four-year or graduate institutions where research is emphasized, and they are given resources to pursue projects.
"I neglected my research; I abandoned it," Barnum said. "I enjoyed the students. I like to see them develop. I like to see them progress.
"There are hundreds of medical doctors and dentists all over the country, and I claim some sort of degree of responsibility for (them)."
Barnum's specialty is orthoptera, or grasshoppers and crickets. He is interested in classifying and describing species and has described three new orthoptera, he said.
Like many retired professors, Barnum has several research projects he wants to finish. There is a grasshopper in St. George he wants to describe, he said.
Surprisingly - given the plague of orthoptera in Utah's history - Barnum was the first to study them in the state.
"To me, every grasshopper is a beautiful thing," he said. "Every one is different from another."
