Davenport, Demorest, 1911-2004

Biography

Demorest Davenport was born September 26, 1911 in Utica, New York. He received his B.A. from Harvard, his master's degree from Colorado College, and then returned to Stanford where he received his PhD in Biology in 1937. His obtained his first academic position in 1938 at Reed College in Portland, Oregon where he studied first entomology and later comparative pharmacology of heart control in mollusks and arthropods. It was here that he met his wife, Winnifred Bailey, a dancer in the Portland City Ballet. In 1942, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force to research aviation physiology. Later he was promoted to captain, heading the altitude and night vision training program until 1946.

After the war he came to UC Santa Barbara where he studied bioluminescence in marine invertebrates. He pushed for the development of a marine facility after the move to the current campus in 1954, which eventually became the UCSB Marine Science Institute. While at Santa Barbara his research focus settled first in the biology of behavior and later transitioned to the study of animals in primitive and ancient art. While at UCSB he was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, making him the first UCSB professor to be awarded the fellowship. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Zoologists, Society of Sigma Xi, The Western Society of Naturalists, and the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. He retired from teaching in 1974. After his retirement he worked with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, where he served as a trustee.

Davenport passed away in 2004.

See Office of Public Information biographical files (UArch 11) for further information.

From the guide to the Demorest Davenport Papers, 1939-1994, (University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections)