. Atoll research bulletin. Coral reefs and islands; Marine biology; Marine sciences. 121 lovable schoolmarm who gloried in explaining the ways of the natural world. During my preadolescent years, we tramped the hills, parks and beaches of southern California, where she extolled on the animal, vegetable and mineral worlds that unfolded before us. Since we both lived on Coronado Island, our walks became more focused on the shoreline. She was in great measure responsible for sparking my interest in marine life, which first led to making a shell collection, then to the collection and study of vari
. Atoll research bulletin. Coral reefs and islands; Marine biology; Marine sciences. 121 lovable schoolmarm who gloried in explaining the ways of the natural world. During my preadolescent years, we tramped the hills, parks and beaches of southern California, where she extolled on the animal, vegetable and mineral worlds that unfolded before us. Since we both lived on Coronado Island, our walks became more focused on the shoreline. She was in great measure responsible for sparking my interest in marine life, which first led to making a shell collection, then to the collection and study of various plants, invertebrates and fishes. By the time I entered high school, my friends — John C. Elwell, Stephen E. Flynn, Marvin A. Nottingham, Charles Quinn, among others - and I began to make diving trips into Mexico. As time went on my interests shifted more from spearfishing to exploring the panoply and interrelationships of marine life. I first observed living corals in the Gulf of California, in subtropical areas south of San Felipe, Baja California, and around San Carlos Bay and Tiburon Island. Our excursions eventually extended farther south into Mexico, and to tropical areas around Mazatlan and Manzanillo. Stimulated by F. G. Walton Smith's book, Atlantic Reef Corals (1948), I traveled to Belize (formerly British Honduras) in 1959 to observe firsthand the largest coral-reef system in the Caribbean Sea. There I offered my diving services to a Mexican fishing crew in exchange for passage to the barrier reef. The three weeks of living and diving along the Belizean Barrier Reef left me with a lasting impression of the magnificence of the marine tropical world. Two of my science teachers at Coronado High School — Curtis in biology and Marvin Nottingham in chemistry — who recognized my interests encouraged me to continue studying in the natural sciences. In graduate school, at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, I was especially influenced by the
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