Raymond Corbett Shannon

Raymond Corbett Shannon (4 October 1894 – 7 March 1945) was an American entomologist who specialised in Diptera and medical entomology.

Life and career

Shannon was born in Washington D.C. He was orphaned as a child.[1] His studies at Cornell University were interrupted by World War I, but he received his B.S. from there in 1923. He was employed by the U.S. Bureau of Entomology from 1912–1916, and again from 1923–1925. In 1926, he began graduate studies at George Washington University, and from 1927 on he was employed by the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation.[2]

He published over 100 articles on the characteristics, environment and behavior of insects and on their aspects as disease vectors.[2] One of his discoveries, in 1930, was of the arrival of Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that carries malaria, into the New World.[3][4][5][6]

On his death at the age of 50, he left his library and insect collection to the Smithsonian Institution.[7]

His wife was Elnora Pettit (Sutherlin) Hundley.[8][9][10] His son was DePaul University accounting professor Donald Sutherlin Shannon, and his grandson is actor Michael Shannon.[11]

References
  1. "Raymond Corbett Shannon", Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey
  2. McAtee, W. L.; J. S., Wade (1951), "Raymond Corbett Shannon 1894–1945", Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash., 53: 211–222 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library
  3. Spielman, Andrew; D'Antonio, Michael (2002), Mosquito: The Story of Man's Deadliest Foe, Hyperion, p. 131, ISBN 978-0-7868-8667-8.
  4. Williams, Greer (1969), The Plague Killers, Scribner, p. 134
  5. Shaplen, Robert; Tourtellot, Arthur Bernon (1964), Toward the well-being of mankind: fifty years of the Rockefeller Foundation, Doubleday, p. 33.
  6. "African Mosquito Ravaging Brazil; Rockefeller Fund Reports It Killed 10% of Population in Some Areas Last Year; U.S. Invasion Is Feared; Until 1930 Anopheles Gambiae, Malaria Carrier, Was Unknown on This Side of Atlantic", New York Times, 27 March 1939
  7. Thompson, F. Christian, History of the USNM Diptera Collection, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History
  8. Monthly Letter of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture, 1922
  9. "Who's Who in the Midwest, 1984-1985", Marquis Who's Who, January 1, 1984, ISBN 9780837907192
  10. "Elnora Hundley", Washington Post, 10 May 2009
  11. "Dr. Donald S. Shannon", Chicago Sun-Times, 24 November 2008

Further reading
  • Gillette, Horace P. S; Bevier, George (1945), "Obituary: Raymond Corbett Shannon", Caribbean Medical Journal, 7: 54–55.
  • Mallis, A. (1971), American Entomologists, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, pp. 499–500.
  • Osborn, H. (1937), Fragments of Entomological History Including Some Personal Recollections of Men and Events, Columbus, OH, pp. 1–394. Published by the author.
  • "Malarial Expert Dies: Dr. Shannon, With Rockefeller Foundation, Leaves 2 Notes", New York Times, March 9, 1945.
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