Obituary: Kenneth Barclay Armitage (1925—2022)

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Dr. Kenneth B. Armitage (Fig. 1), internationally recognized behavioral and physiological ecologist, passed away on 6 January 2022 at his home in Lawrence, Kansas at the age of 96 and surrounded by family. He was a legend in the field of behavioral ecology having executed one of the longest running studies to date, a 40+ year comprehensive study of yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventer) ecology. Ken will be widely remembered for his extensive scholarly contributions and work as a dedicated educator of undergraduates and graduate students throughout his lengthy career. He is survived by his beloved wife, Katie, their children Karole, Keith (Maria), and Kevin, and four granddaughters—Emeline, Julia, Sophie, and Rita. Dr. Kenneth B. Armitage (1925–2022) at the University of Kansas, Lawrence in 1988. Photograph courtesy of University of Kansas Archives. Ken was born 18 April 1925 in Steubenville, Ohio, the only child of Albert Kenneth and Virginia Huntington (nee Barclay) Armitage. His interest in the natural world developed at an early age, and he spent much of his free time watching birds and collecting insects and flowers. He was an active Boy Scout, a YMCA Nature Counselor for several summers, and leader of community bird walks in his hometown. He graduated with honors from Steubenville High School in 1943 and shortly thereafter enlisted in the United States Army (Fig. 2). Ken was assigned to the Army Air Corps for flight training but was transferred to the infantry when the need for flight personnel decreased. He was assigned to the 14th Armored Division and reached Europe in early 1945, in time to participate in the advance of Patton’s Third Army across southern Germany. Following victory in Europe, he was initially slated for the 45th Infantry Division, scheduled to begin training for the invasion of Japan, but at the last minute he was ordered to join a division returning home. In January 1946, he was issued an honorable discharge. A half century later when observing Sand Hill Cranes during the migration along the Nebraska Platte River, he would authoritatively voice “Down landing gear!” every time the cranes came in to land... perhaps a throwback to his time in the military. Kenneth B. Armitage at high school graduation at the age of 18. Photograph courtesy of the Armitage family. Through the support of the G.I. Bill, Ken attended Bethany College, West Virginia from fall 1946 to spring 1949, majoring in biology. He was active on campus forming the Outdoor Club and in leading an effort to integrate the student body, and his activism was recognized by his induction into the campus leadership honor society. Ken graduated summa cum laude and received the Hoagland Award as the outstanding senior graduate. Ken’s academic work was also recognized by his induction into Beta Beta Beta (biological honor society). In the summer of 1949, Ken worked as a Ranger Naturalist at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, a job he did each summer through 1954. Ken’s time in Yellowstone was instrumental in shaping both his career and personal paths. His interests in biology were fueled by the wealth of natural systems in Yellowstone, and he ultimately chose to study the aquatic ecology of the Firehole River for his dissertation research; the Firehole River is unusual in that it is warmed by effluent from Yellowstone’s famous hot springs. It was at Yellowstone where Ken first noticed and was intrigued by marmots, a group which would become the focus of much of his life’s work. Yellowstone was also where, during the summer of 1949, Ken met Katie Lou Hart, then a student from Baylor University. Ken and Katie married in 1953 and enjoyed 68 years of marriage before Ken’s passing. In the fall of 1949, Ken began his pursuit of a doctorate degree at the University of Wisconsin studying limnology under the mentorship of Arthur Hassler, one of the pioneers of limnology. Ken’s research of the Firehole River was supported by an NSF pre-doctoral fellowship and a Knapp House Fellowship, and was published in Ecology. He was inducted into Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society, in 1952. While still a graduate student, Ken recognized his love of teaching, and he taught at the University of Wisconsin Freshmen–Sophomore Centers in Green Bay and Wausau for two years after the completion of his doctorate. Ken joined the Department of Zoology at the University of Kansas in fall 1956 as an aquatic biologist. He earned the rank of full professor in 1966, and was awarded the Baumgartner Distinguished Professor of Systematics and Ecology in 1987. Upon his retirement in 1996, he remained active as a Professor Emeritus in the department. During Ken’s 40-year tenure at KU, he was extremely dedicated to serving not only his students but also many aspects of the institution. Ken believed strongly in the importance of quality education for undergraduate students and to this end, he served as Chair of the Biology Department (for undergraduates) from 1968–1975 and taught undergraduate, introductory biology courses for most of his career at KU. Further, Ken was one of the founders of the undergraduate Environmental Studies Program and served on the Environmental Studies Committee from 1973–1982, serving as Chair from 1976–1982. He went on to serve as Chair of the Department of Systematics and Ecology from 1982–1988. Ken was fully committed to the importance of a rigorous, broad-based general biology course for undergraduates. He believed that introductory biology was critically important to undergraduate education and personally gave the lectures for several years and worked closely with other faculty to develop the course. To accompany the lectures, he and the Director of the laboratories, George Pisani, wrote and published a laboratory manual of topics complementing the lectures and relevant to the times. Their manual, Laboratory Topics in General Biology, was used by several colleges and universities throughout the country (Armitage and Pisani 1991). In recognition of Ken’s commitment to excellence in teaching undergraduate biology, the University of Kansas now recognizes an outstanding teaching assistant with the Kenneth B. Armitage Award for Excellence in Teaching Principles of Biology. Many of Ken’s graduate students were teaching assistants, which afforded them the opportunity to learn directly from their mentor to value and prioritize their teaching efforts. He often attributed his passion for student-centered efforts to his own undergraduate experience at a small liberal arts college. Ken’s competence and skill in the classroom was never more apparent than when he asked two of his graduate students (co-authors here) to cover his introductory biology lectures at a time when he was hospitalized. He assured them that they were up to the task of teaching a large lecture for undergraduates and that it would be simple. “Just follow my notes and the slides are already in the carousel,” Ken said. They agreed, only to quickly realize that his notes were merely cues to what he planned to spontaneously share; notes that were likely very clear to him but extremely challenging to interpret. This experience illustrated Ken’s depth of knowledge and ability to offer a quality course largely from memory. Needless to say, we delivered “adequate” lectures but only after hours of preparation. When Ken began his career at KU, his research focused on aquatic ecology, and he published more than 35 papers on this topic, many with students. In recognition of his research and the discovery of ice-covered warm-water lakes in Antarctic in 1961, he received the Antarctic Medal for Research in Antarctica in 1968. At some point along the way, his research interests shifted to physiological and behavioral ecology questions, and the marmots of Yellowstone that he observed years earlier surfaced as optimal study subjects to address these questions. Ken’s first publications on marmots were based on the Yello

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