Roy William Quillin

Roy Quillin worked as a marketer for Mobil Oil, but dedicated his personal life to bird study. He was a contributor to ornithological literature, including the Auk and Condor, and worked with other naturalists, including A.J. Kirn, in collecting trips to South Texas and the Coastal Bend. He is well remembered for his massive and well-documented collection of 10,000 eggs, including 2200 clutches, representing over 400 species. It is held by the Rob and Bessie Welder Wildlife Foundation, and forms a key research set for comparing nesting dates and sites in the face of climate change, and tracking egg characteristics before and after pesticides were pervasive. He and his wife, Ellen Quillin, the botanist, teacher and founder of the Witte Museum, left the Roy & Ellen Quillin Foundation to continue their conservation legacy.

The photo of Quillin was kindly provided by Stan Casto, who received it from Raymond Quigley. It shows Quillin with an elf owl captured in Lower Juniper Canyon of the Chisos Mountains on May 21, 1934.