Reginald Haughton Barrett, PhD, has received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who. The publisher of biographical profiles picks honorees based on factors such as position, accomplishments, visibility and prominence. It endorsed Dr. Barrett as a leader in zoology and higher education.
His career started outdoors. In the 1960s he worked as a guide, packer and wrangler at Kings Canyon National Park. He then served as a research assistant for the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in Alaska and for the U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife at the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge in Montana. He also spent time as a conservation technician for the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada.
Dr. Barrett earned a BS in game management from Humboldt State University in 1965. He then earned an MS in wildlife management at the University of Michigan. After that came a PhD in zoology from the University of California in 1971.
The University of California stayed his academic home for close to 40 years. He began there as a teaching assistant and research ecologist in zoology. Later he taught across the forestry, resource management and environmental science departments. In 2003 he was named Goertz Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Management, and he became professor emeritus in 2014. During the 1970s he also worked abroad as a research scientist with the CSIRO Division of Wildlife Research in Darwin, Australia.
His published work includes close to 200 peer-reviewed articles, along with several symposium volumes and handbooks. The Wildlife Society certified him as a wildlife biologist in 1979, while the Ecological Society of America named him a certified senior ecologist in 1993. He received the William Penn Mott Jr. Environmental Award in 2008.
Outside the university, he has served on a number of local and conservation boards. They include the Orinda Historical Society, Friends of Orinda Creeks and Friends of Wagner Ranch Nature Area. The Regional Parks Association is on that list too. He has also served the Golden Gate Chapter of Safari Club International and the CalFauna Foundation. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Education.
Dr. Barrett has been married to Katharine Lawrence Ditmars since 1967, and they have two children. When he is not working, he enjoys hunting, fishing, camping, backpacking, travel and photography.
