At one time my great ambition was to become a taxidermist.

My family did not actively oppose this desire but suggested that a few preliminary years in school and college might prove useful.
I eventually lost my ambition to be a taxidermist but did not lose my interest in zooelogy and botany.

While a student at the University of Michigan I specialized in these subjects.

I was fortunate in having as one of my instructors Professor Joseph B.Steere, then at the head of the Department of Zooelogy.

Professor Steere, who had been a great traveller, at times entertained his classes with wonderfully interesting tales of adventure on the Amazon and in the Andes, Peru, Formosa, the Philippines and the Dutch Moluccas.