April 22, 1900-May 14, 1987

BY S. DILLON RIPLEY

HERBERT FRIEDMANN, innovative museum director and long a productive zoological curator, was one of this country's most scholarly ornithologists. His technical specialties focused on the evolution of brood parasitism in birds and other aspects of bird behavior, avian taxonomy, cerophagy and wax digestion by honey guides, and the significance of animal symbolism in the art of the Renaissance and Middle Ages. Elected a member of the Academy in 1962, Dr. Friedmann was born in Brooklyn on April 22, 1900, and died, of cancer, at Saddleback Hospital in Laguna Hills, California, on May 14, 1987. He is survived by his wife, Karen Juul Vejlo, of Laguna Hills; one daughter, Karen Friedmann Beall (Mrs. Dale K. Haworth), of Northfield, Minnesota; and one brother, Ralph Friedman, of Manhattan.

In his eighty-seven years, Herbert Friedmann never ceased his pursuit of intellectual challenges, offered by a broad range of interests. These overshadow his less well-known achievements in the field of museum administration. His reorganization of the Los Angeles County Museum is testament to his leadership abilities. Yet he will be best remembered as a thoughtful scholar. In the following pages I provide a brief outline of his life and his major accomplishments and hope to impart a little of his gentle charm