Bruce Beehler, Class of 1974

It was a red-bellied woodpecker. At the age of seven, looking up from a picnic table, you locked eyes on it, an experience, you have said, that changed your life forever. It was no surprise then that your senior thesis focused on bird life in the Adirondacks, and that a Watson Travel Fellowship took you to New Guinea—the first of more than forty visits to the islands of the South Pacific. Most notable among these was the expedition that discovered amid the Foja Mountains of Indonesia a lost world of species new, or thought to have died out. Among them was the wattled smoky honeyeater, which you named Melipotes carolae for your wife Carol. More than seventy new species were catalogued from that trip and two follow-up visits, including a type of giant rat, a wallaby, and a gecko. You then returned with a crew from 60 Minutes to show many of these animals to the world for the first time. This passion for birds and curiosity about their place in the natural order have led to countless books and scientific papers and to your becoming the media’s go-to guy for insight into the importance of bird life. They have led also to your work on preserving these fragile creatures in the face of climate change so that, as you have said, “our great-grandchildren can hear the rain forest whisper its secrets.”

In recognition of your distinguished achievement in environmental conservation, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.

September 17, 2016