John Steven Buckett (1939 - 1986)

Steven Buckett, the driving force behind the elucidation of some of the western Nearctic diplopod fauna in the 1960's and 1970's, died of pneumonia in Davis, California, on January 16, 1986. He was only 46. Born in Oackland, California, in 1939, Steven served briefly in the Marine Corps and attended Santa Rosa Junior College and the University of California at Davis, where he received the Bachelor of Science degree with a major in entomology in 19654. He earned the Master of Science in Entomology at UC Davis in 1966.

Steven was employed as a systematic entomologist with the California Department of Agriculture and wished to complete his Ph. D. degree at Davis, but deteriorating health prevented his reaching this goal. I spent a pleasant afternoon with Steven in Davis in 1984, when he suffered from several afflictions, and found him a warm, friendly, outgoing man with a wealth ok knowledge of western diplopods and environments. Myriapodologists know Steven as coauthor, with M.R. Gardner, of three milliped subspecies; 12 species; the genera Idagona, Bidentogon, Anombrocheir and Metaxycheir; and the family Idagonidae. His main interest, however, was Lepidoptera, in which he authored or coauthored 2 subspecies, 23 species and 3 genera. Steven published 53 papers, 11 on diplopods and the rest on insects, chiefly moths. It is unfortunate that more myriapodologists didn't have the pleasure of meeting this affable man and that poor physical health prevented him from contributing more to our science.



Rowland M. Shelley, April 1988