Stanley D. Roth1935-2024
Stan’s interest in herps began when his dad got a copy of Hobart Smith’s Reptiles and Amphibians of Kansas, first edition when I was in high school in the early 1950s. This was the first of the natural history books printed by the Kansas Biological Survey. Subsequent books, also readily received, were on mammals and birds.
Stan was a member of a Boy Scout troop in Olathe. On our scout campouts, he was the one brave enough to deal with the snakes that we encountered. He caught them alive and then moved them away from camp.
Stan was also very busy as a ham radio operator. When he went to the Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University) as a freshman in the fall of 1953, he thought his experience with ham radios would qualify him to be an engineer until realizing that he also needed to be good in math. In the summer after his freshman year at KSTC, he encountered a large Timber Rattlesnake on a county road near Olathe. He impaled it through the head to the gravel road with a knife and took it home. Hobart’s book explained how to preserve reptiles so se bought a pint of formalin and preserved the snake according to Smith’s directions. He included all the vital data about the snake on a slip of paper and placed it in the jar with the snake.
His next year in Emporia prompted an interest in biology education and he was hired as a student assistant in biology. Bob Clarke was working on a Master’s Degree in Biology at the time. Stan told him of his encounter with the Timber Rattlesnake and Bob let Stan know that species had not been recorded from Johnson County. During the next year at Emporia, Stan was placed in charge of the collections of preserved and living herps in the KSTC Biology Department. One task was to survey the collection for county records to be submitted to the Biological Survey. The Johnson County Timber Rattlesnake was one of those records. He thought that made him a hero.
Stan completed the undergraduate degree in biology education and stayed at KSTC for two more years working on a masters. He did a field project in the Flint Hills on climate differences near the ground in relation to herps. After his college years at KSTC, he was hired to teach at Lawrence High School. He took a major collection of lizards, turtles, snakes and a live prairie dog and set up his classroom with these living specimens. One of his long-range goals was to teach his students to respect for and not fear snakes. He kept live specimens of Kansas’ venomous snakes in the room so the students recognized the differences between those and the harmless varieties.
Several of his students were interested in the maintenance of the live animals. Eric M. Rundquist was one of these students. Stan and Eric met J. T. Collins (then known as Tom) …later as Joe…at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. Joe was in charge of the herp collection there.
As Stan led field trips with students all over Kansas, he and his students collected numerous herps as county records. They submitted them to the KU collection. Stan and Eric, helped to convince Joe to develop a state organization for herpetology in Kansas. This was in the 1974 when herpetologists from several state colleges came together to form the Kansas Herpetological Society. Robert Clarke from Emporia State and Ray Ashton from the KU Natural History Museum were two of the early members. Eric was the first president and was good at writing reports on KHS activities.
Later, with Joes inspirations, the KHS began sponsoring field trips and holding annual meetings. Another “survivor” of Stan’s high school teaching was David Reber who also served as KHS president for one year. Stan, too, took his turn as President of KHS in 1996.
During that time, the KHS experienced a major increase in members. Joe wrote an edition of Reptiles and Amphibians in Kansas as well as numerous research reports. Stan conducted a number of month-long studies on birds of prey sponsored by the nongame office of Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. During these studies, Stan and his field companions, did additional reporting and collecting of amphibians and reptiles as well as of birds and mammals. At one time, Joe told Stan that he had placed more dots on the county species maps than any other person. This all was completed by the summer of 1999.
Stan was a Biology teacher at Lawrence High School for four decades, receiving a State Teacher of the Year award. He was noted for loading one of the school’s vehicles with high school students and spending weeks roaming the entire western end of the Smoky Hill River valley studying a variety of animals. His Ferruginous Hawk paper from 30 years of nesting studies is the definitive Kansas paper on the species (Roth and Marzluff 1989). After retirement, he became an adjunct naturalist for the Kansas Biological Survey in Lawrence.
From information conveyed by Stan on 7 February 2023.
Stan was a member of a Boy Scout troop in Olathe. On our scout campouts, he was the one brave enough to deal with the snakes that we encountered. He caught them alive and then moved them away from camp.
Stan was also very busy as a ham radio operator. When he went to the Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University) as a freshman in the fall of 1953, he thought his experience with ham radios would qualify him to be an engineer until realizing that he also needed to be good in math. In the summer after his freshman year at KSTC, he encountered a large Timber Rattlesnake on a county road near Olathe. He impaled it through the head to the gravel road with a knife and took it home. Hobart’s book explained how to preserve reptiles so se bought a pint of formalin and preserved the snake according to Smith’s directions. He included all the vital data about the snake on a slip of paper and placed it in the jar with the snake.
His next year in Emporia prompted an interest in biology education and he was hired as a student assistant in biology. Bob Clarke was working on a Master’s Degree in Biology at the time. Stan told him of his encounter with the Timber Rattlesnake and Bob let Stan know that species had not been recorded from Johnson County. During the next year at Emporia, Stan was placed in charge of the collections of preserved and living herps in the KSTC Biology Department. One task was to survey the collection for county records to be submitted to the Biological Survey. The Johnson County Timber Rattlesnake was one of those records. He thought that made him a hero.
Stan completed the undergraduate degree in biology education and stayed at KSTC for two more years working on a masters. He did a field project in the Flint Hills on climate differences near the ground in relation to herps. After his college years at KSTC, he was hired to teach at Lawrence High School. He took a major collection of lizards, turtles, snakes and a live prairie dog and set up his classroom with these living specimens. One of his long-range goals was to teach his students to respect for and not fear snakes. He kept live specimens of Kansas’ venomous snakes in the room so the students recognized the differences between those and the harmless varieties.
Several of his students were interested in the maintenance of the live animals. Eric M. Rundquist was one of these students. Stan and Eric met J. T. Collins (then known as Tom) …later as Joe…at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. Joe was in charge of the herp collection there.
As Stan led field trips with students all over Kansas, he and his students collected numerous herps as county records. They submitted them to the KU collection. Stan and Eric, helped to convince Joe to develop a state organization for herpetology in Kansas. This was in the 1974 when herpetologists from several state colleges came together to form the Kansas Herpetological Society. Robert Clarke from Emporia State and Ray Ashton from the KU Natural History Museum were two of the early members. Eric was the first president and was good at writing reports on KHS activities.
Later, with Joes inspirations, the KHS began sponsoring field trips and holding annual meetings. Another “survivor” of Stan’s high school teaching was David Reber who also served as KHS president for one year. Stan, too, took his turn as President of KHS in 1996.
During that time, the KHS experienced a major increase in members. Joe wrote an edition of Reptiles and Amphibians in Kansas as well as numerous research reports. Stan conducted a number of month-long studies on birds of prey sponsored by the nongame office of Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. During these studies, Stan and his field companions, did additional reporting and collecting of amphibians and reptiles as well as of birds and mammals. At one time, Joe told Stan that he had placed more dots on the county species maps than any other person. This all was completed by the summer of 1999.
Stan was a Biology teacher at Lawrence High School for four decades, receiving a State Teacher of the Year award. He was noted for loading one of the school’s vehicles with high school students and spending weeks roaming the entire western end of the Smoky Hill River valley studying a variety of animals. His Ferruginous Hawk paper from 30 years of nesting studies is the definitive Kansas paper on the species (Roth and Marzluff 1989). After retirement, he became an adjunct naturalist for the Kansas Biological Survey in Lawrence.
From information conveyed by Stan on 7 February 2023.