Ray Forster
{{short description|New Zealand entomologist and museum director}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=May 2019}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Ray Forster
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|06|19|df=y}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2000|07|01|1922|06|19|df=y}}
| death_place = Dunedin, New Zealand
| fields = Arachnology
| workplaces =
| spouse = {{marriage|Lyn Forster|1948}}
}}
Raymond Robert Forster {{post-nominals|country=NZL|QSO|size=85%}} (19 June 1922 – 1 July 2000) was a New Zealand arachnologist and museum director. He was a Fellow of The Entomological Society of New Zealand.
Biography
Forster was born in Hastings, New Zealand in 1922,{{cite web |url=http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/publications/reports/yearbooks/year2000/obituaries/ray-forster/ |title=Raymond Robert Forster QSO DSc NZ Otago FRSNZ FESNZ FMANZ 1922–2000: Are you there? |first=Robert J. |last=Raven |publisher=Royal Society of New Zealand |year=2000 |access-date=14 February 2013}} and was educated at Victoria University College, gaining BSc, MSc(Hons) and DSc degrees.{{cite web |url=http://philosophy.wisc.edu/forster/Lyn&Ray/RayForsterODTJuly2000.htm |title=World-rated zoologist classified many native NZ spiders |publisher=Otago Daily Times |date=8 July 2000}}
Forster was an entomologist at the National Museum in Wellington from 1940 to 1947, with an interruption for military service during World War II. Between 1942 and 1945 he served first in the army and then as a naval radar mechanic.[http://www.arachnology.org/isa/obituaries/forster.html Ray Forster obituary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130808160128/http://www.arachnology.org/ISA/obituaries/forster.html |date=8 August 2013 }}. International Society of Arachnology. Retrieved 14 February 2013. He was appointed zoologist and assistant director at Canterbury Museum in 1948. Forster was one of the zoologists studying invertebrates on the 1949 New Zealand American Fiordland Expedition.{{CiteQ|Q125475906}} He was a marine biologist on the 1954 Chatham Islands expedition.{{Cite Q|Q66412141}} In 1957, Forster moved to Otago Museum to take up the position of director. He retired from that role in 1987.
Forster wrote his first paper on spiders at the age of 17. Over the course of his career, more than 100 scientific papers and volumes were published bearing his name, including the definitive six-volume Spiders of New Zealand, in co-authorship with international colleagues. He also published Small Land Animals and co-authored NZ Spiders, An Introduction. Much of his work was accomplished in collaboration with his wife, Lyn Forster, a notable New Zealand arachnologist.{{Cite journal|last1=Vink|first1=Cor J.|last2=Sirvid|first2=Phil J.|last3=Hall|first3=Grace|date=February 2009|title=Obituary DR LYNDSAY MCLAREN FORSTER: 1925–2009|journal=New Zealand Entomologist|language=en|volume=32|issue=1|pages=95–97|doi=10.1080/00779962.2009.9722184|bibcode=2009NZEnt..32...95V |s2cid=85262722|issn=0077-9962}}
He researched and classified many of New Zealand's thousands of native spiders, and was responsible for establishing Otago Museum's spider collection.
Forster died in Dunedin in 2000.
Honours
In 1961, Forster was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and received two of that society's honours: the Hutton Medal in 1971; and the Hector Medal in 1983.
The University of Otago honoured Forster with the award of the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, in 1978.
Forster was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, and was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services in the 1984 New Year Honours.{{London Gazette |issue=49584 |date=31 December 1983 |page=35 |supp=2}}
Forster was also elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.{{Cite web |title=Fellowship of the society – Entomological Society of New Zealand |url=https://ento.org.nz/awards-and-grants/fellowship-of-the-society/ |access-date=2022-05-31 |language=en-GB}}
Honorific eponym
A small valley in Fiordland, Forster Burn, is named after him.
References
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{{Recipients of the Hector Memorial Medal}}
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Category:New Zealand arachnologists
Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni
Category:Companions of the Queen's Service Order
Category:People from Hastings, New Zealand
Category:Directors of museums in New Zealand
Category:Royal New Zealand Navy personnel of World War II
Category:20th-century New Zealand zoologists
Category:People associated with Otago Museum
Category:New Zealand military personnel of World War II
Category:People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand
Category:Fellows of the Entomological Society of New Zealand