Starting to watch birds at the age of five, Noble Proctor never looked back. Following his graduation from high school, Noble spent several years working in construction to cover the expenses of his developing photographic career and the cost of cross-country Greyhound bus tickets that allowed him to see North America the least expensive way possible in the 1960s. Eventually, Noble went on to receive degrees from Southern Connecticut State University and the University of Connecticut, where he earned his Ph.D.
An ornithologist all of his life, he amassed a lifelong birding list of over 6,000 species worldwide, 814 species in North America and his most prized list of finding 512 species of North American bird nests.
A memorial gathering in remembrance honoring Noble S. Proctor will be held on Tuesday June 9th from 6:30-9:00pm in the third floor auditorium of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (170 Whitney Ave., New Haven, CT).
As a professor at Southern Connecticut State University for 34 years, Noble touched the lives and educated literally thousands of students in the fields of biology, ornithology, botany, mycology, and natural history. An accomplished photographer and author of numerous publications, his books include the widely acclaimed Manual of Ornithology (with P. J. Lynch, 1993), A Field Guide to North Atlantic Wildlife (with P.J. Lynch, 2005), and A Field Guide to the Southeast Coast & Gulf of Mexico (with P.J. Lynch, 2011). Noble also made significant contributions to the successful completion of the classic 5th edition of the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds.
For over 30 years, Noble was a much sought-after tour leader, and throughout his career he took groups of birders to over 65 different countries. At the "edge" of the ABA (American Birding Association) Area, Noble helped "discover" Attu Island, at the end of the Aleutian Chain of islands, as a birdable and extraordinarily exciting birding destination.
Noble's long list of personal awards and recognition achievements are too numerous to list in this short space, but suffice it to say all were justifiably earned and attained.
His charismatic personality, irrepressible sense of humor, remarkable field skills, and his exceptional ability to share his knowledge of field natural history were legend. In many ways, his life can best be summarized by a quote from Gandi that for many years had a prominent place on his desk: "Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever."
A portion of this report was provided by The Birding Community E.Bulletin http://refugeassociation.org/news/birding-bulletin/
Read his complete obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nhregister/obituary.aspx?pid=174983755
