Hobart M. Smith (1912-2013) | University of Illinois Archives

Hobart M. Smith joined the faculty of the Department of Zoology at the University of Illinois in 1947. Additionally, Smith was Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles, significantly building the UIMNH’s collection.

Hobart Muir Smith was on September 26, 1912, in Stanwood, Iowa.¹ Smith studied entomology and herpetology at Kansas State University (KSU), graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1932. That summer, Smith and Edward H. Taylor (zoology professor at the University of Kansas) travelled through Mexico, collecting around 5,500 herpetofauna specimens over 3.5 months.² Smith continued to study under Taylor, receiving a master’s from KSU and Ph.D. from University of Kansas.³ In 1947, Smith became a professor of zoology at the University of Illinois (UI).⁴ After Smith arrived at UI, the University of Illinois Museum of Natural History acquired about one-third of Taylor’s Mexican herpetofauna collection.⁵ Smith retired from UI in 1968 and became faculty at the University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder until he retired again in 1983.⁶ Hobart Smith died on March 4, 2013.⁷

¹Chiszar, D., McConkey, E., Stewart, M. M., & Smith, H. M. (2004). Hobart Muir Smith. Copeia, 2004(2), 418–424. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1448582, pp. 418-419.

²Taylor, Edward Harrison. (1975). Edward H. Taylor: recollections of an herpetologist. Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.4250, p. 128

³Chiszar, et al., p. 420.

⁴https://herpetology.inhs.illinois.edu/research/uimnh-collection/

⁵Taylor, p. 128.

⁶Chiszar, et al., p. 421

⁷https://ksherp.com/hobart-m-smith/