[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 125 (Friday, September 18, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1763]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR KENNETH NORRIS

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 18, 1998

  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a leader 
in environmental protection, an author and scientist of the first 
order, and a teacher who has left a lasting legacy. Professor Kenneth 
Norris died August 16, 1998.
  Ken Norris received his bachelor's and master's degrees in zoology 
from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). While studying for 
his doctorate, Ken was hired as founding curator at Marineland of the 
Pacific. It was there that Ken made discoveries that formed the basis 
for his pioneering studies of marine mammals, and the echolocation by 
which dolphins navigate, communicate, and investigate their watery 
world.
  In 1959 Ken received his doctorate from Scripps Institute of 
Oceanography, his doctoral dissertation winning an award from the 
Ecological Society of America. Ken returned to UCLA to teach 
herpetology and to research desert reptiles. However, Ken was lured 
back to the ocean when offered the position of founding scientific 
director for the Oceanic Institute, in which he served from 1968 to 
1971. As a scientific advisor to the United States Marine Mammal 
Commission, Ken helped to write the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 
1972. It was in that year that he came to University of California, 
Santa Cruz to serve as director of the Center for Coastal Marine 
Studies. While in that position, Ken worked with others to develop the 
UC-Santa Cruz Joseph M. Long Marine Laboratory. Also in 1972, Ken 
created the UC Natural Reserve System which protects 120,000 acres of 
natural habitat throughout California. From 1977 to 1979, Ken chaired 
the environmental studies department at UC-Santa Cruz, teaching his 
popular and rigorous ``Field Quarter'' class which covered that natural 
history of California from the deserts to the forests, communicating 
his keen interest in ecological systems, and in rigorous scientific 
inquiry. Ken founded the Environmental Field Program which continues to 
support undergraduate research. He was a popular professor, whose 
ability to inspire respect for the environment spread well beyond his 
classroom through the host of his former students who carry his work 
forward. Ken retired in 1990.
  Ken attained international recognition for the many ways he 
engendered support for the environment, especially his leadership in 
the world wide campaign to reduce the number of dolphins caught in the 
nets of fishermen. In 1992, he received the John Burroughs Medal for 
his book ``Dolphin Days: The Life and Times of the Spinner Dolphin.'' 
He was named ``Man of the Year'' by the American Cetacean Society in 
1996, and was a recipient of the Academy of Sciences Fellows Medal in 
1977.
  Our hearts go out to his family, his wife, Phyllis; three daughters 
Susie, Nancy and Barbara; his son Richard; his brother Robert; and his 
six grandchildren.
  Ken Norris has gone far beyond leaving the world a better place, he 
has taught each of us a lesson about our ongoing responsibilities to 
the planet.

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