Pearse, A.S. (Arthur Sperry), 1877-1956

Arthur Sperry Pearse was Professor of Zoology at Duke University from 1927 until his retirement in 1948. Pearse played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Marine Biology Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, and served as the lab's first director from 1938 until 1945.

Arthur Sperry Pearse was born 15 March 1877, on the Pawnee Indian Reservation near Crete, Nebraska, where his parents ran a trading post. In 1898, Pearse left the University of Nebraska with the 4th Nebraska Volunteer Infantry in the Spanish-American War, returning to receive his B.A. in 1900 and his M.A. in 1904. He went on to complete his doctoral work at Harvard where he received his Ph.D. in 1908. Also, in 1942, Pearse received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Nebraska.

Pearse taught courses at Harvard, the University of Michigan (1908-1910), the University of the Philippines (1911), St. Louis University School of Medicine (1911-1912), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1912-1927), and, finally, as Professor of Zoology at Duke University (1927-1948). In 1926, Pearse spent five months at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and one year as a visiting professor at Keio University in Japan (1929-1930). Pearse was an instrumental participant in the creation of the Duke Marine Laboratory at Beaufort, N.C., in 1938 and served as the lab's first director until 1945. Pearse was also founder and editor of Ecological Monographs (1930-1950), a publication of Duke University Press. In addition to work within the academy, Pearse was also a special investigator for the United States Bureau of Fisheries, a special member of field staff for the International Health Board, and a special investigator for the Carnegie Institute. Pearse was also a member of many scientific societies and served as president of the Ecology Society of America (1925), American Society of Zoologists (1945), and North Carolina Academy of Science (1951), and as vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1936).

During his career Pearse authored about 175 publications on a variety of research interests in the fields of marine zoology and ecology, microbiology, forestry, and parisitology including fresh-water fauna, beach and estuarine animals, the fauna of soil and forest environments, parasitic marine crustacea, and biological adaptation. Pearse's many publications include General Zoology (1917), The Migration of Animals from Sea to Land (1936), Fauna of the Caves of the Yucatan (1938), and Animal Ecology (1939). Pearse also published a collection of essays, Hell's Bells (1941), and an autobiography, Adventure: Trying to be a Zoologist (1952). His research travels took him to the Philippines, Japan, Yucatan, Venezuela, Nigeria, and numerous locations throughout the United States including Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Maine, Florida, Texas, and coastal North Carolina.