Arcata Couple Doubles Wildlife Funds

An Arcata couple has given Humboldt State University a $107,000 gift of stock endowing two new scholarships and augmenting an existing one, nearly doubling HSU’s available financial assistance for undergraduate and graduate wildlife students. The benefactors are Dr. Stanley W. Harris, who retired from HSU in 1992 after 33 years of service, and his wife, Lorene. Both remain actively involved in the university’s wildlife program.

Their $107,000 gift buttresses the Wildlife Department’s three existing scholarships with the new Lorene J. Harris Scholarship for undergraduates, mirroring the existing one, and the new Stanley W. and Lorene J. Harris Scholarship for graduate students. Each scholarship’s endowment is expected to generate annual investment earnings to fund approximately $1,500 to $2,000 for each scholarship, contingent on interest rates. “The students really need the help and we felt this was something we were capable of doing at this point in our life,” Harris said, in light of rising California State University registration fees. They are climbing up to more than $2,500 for undergraduates and $2,800 for graduate students who are state residents.

Twelve awards have been made to promising wildlife biologists since 1992. Recipients are reviewed on the basis of their grade point average, evidence of relevant professional and leadership activities, letters of recommendation and an essay describing their personal wildlife conservation ethic and their views of wildlife’s future. “With more than 300 students, many deserving scholarships on the basis of financial need and merit, we are very grateful to the Harris’s for their support,” said Mark Colwell, HSU professor and chair of the scholarship committee.“They are longtime friends of the department, and their generosity adds significantly to our scholarship program. With this addition, we’ll almost double our ability to support wildlife students through private scholarships.”

The original scholarship was established when Dr. Harris retired 12 years ago. Conservation Unlimited, a student wildlife group to which he was the longtime advisor, sponsored a dinner in Harris’s honor that generated almost $6,000, including matching funds the Harris’s donated. In 1997, they added more than $18,000 from a gift of stock, formalizing the endowment for undergraduates, the Stanley W. Harris Scholarship.

A two-year wildlife program opened at Humboldt State College in 1940, about a year after World War II broke out. A bachelor of arts in wildlife management was approved in 1947 and changed to a bachelor of science in 1956, with the addition of a master’s of science degree. The original Wildlife Building was completed in 1955. Dr. Harris arrived at Humboldt State in 1959, joining the faculty as a waterfowl specialist after serving as the state of Minnesota’s director of the upland game research program. His tenure at HSU encompassed the growth period of the 1950s and 1960s, when student enrollment topped the 2,000 mark.

By 1967, wildlife management was among the most popular majors on campus, grouped with forestry, biology, psychology and history. Currently, wildlife enrollment is more than 275 undergraduates and 38 graduate students, which continues the program’s ranking as among HSU's largest. A native of Dodson, Montana, Dr. Harris earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Washington State College and his doctorate at the University of Minnesota in 1957, all in wildlife management. While at Humboldt State, he was twice department chair and a wildlife consultant with various companies. Among other honors, he received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1969-70 and was named Conservationist of the Year in 1973 by the Humboldt chapter of the Wildlife Society. One of the five ponds of the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary was named after him in 2001, as one of the facility’s principals.

Dr. Harris is a life member of the Wildlife Society, having served in many officer positions, including section president from 1967-69. He sat on the society’s editorial review board of the Journal of Wildlife Management, and served on several committees over the years. He has held membership in several wildlife organizations, including the Cooper Ornithological Club, American Ornithologist’s Union, Pacific Seabird Group, National Audubon Society and Sigma Xi. He is named in several biological listings, including American Men and Women of Science and Humboldt County’s Outstanding Citizens. His research interests have resulted in close to 80 papers in American periodical literature, mostly on ornithological subjects. Dr. Harris’s 1991 book, “Northwestern California Birds: a Guide to the Status, Distribution and Habitats of the Birds of Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, northern Mendocino, and western Siskiyou Counties, California” was republished in 1996.

Dr. Harris has written more than 120 book reviews and 150 features on birds, and compiled more than 90 field note columns for various publications. In addition to ornithology, his primary interests and expertise are in waterfowl ecology and management, and wetland ecology. He has supervised almost 50 HSU graduate students, and does volunteer work for the California Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the city of Arcata in various professional activities, field trips and other events. Since retirement, the Harris’s have continued to work as volunteers for HSU in wildlife specimen and display preparation. They were instrumental in creating the displays and exhibits for the new Wildlife and Fisheries Building when it was dedicated in 1999, and Mrs. Harris painted many of the mounts. Wildlife Room 238, the Harris Study Room and Wildlife Displays, was dedicated in their honor in 2002. “They’ve made a huge impact on the program,” added Colwell, “much more than the money. They are always available to help students, go on field trips and stay active. They love being around the students.”