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13 Facts About Ray Forster

1.

Raymond Robert Forster was a New Zealand arachnologist and museum director.

2.

Ray Forster was a Fellow of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.

3.

Ray Forster was an entomologist at the National Museum in Wellington from 1940 to 1947, with an interruption for military service during World War II.

4.

Ray Forster was appointed zoologist and assistant director at Canterbury Museum in 1948.

5.

Ray Forster was one of the zoologists studying invertebrates on the 1949 New Zealand American Fiordland Expedition.

6.

Ray Forster was a marine biologist on the 1954 Chatham Islands expedition.

7.

In 1957, Ray Forster moved to Otago Museum to take up the position of director.

8.

Ray Forster wrote his first paper on spiders at the age of 17.

9.

Ray Forster published Small Land Animals and co-authored NZ Spiders, An Introduction.

10.

Ray Forster researched and classified many of New Zealand's thousands of native spiders, and was responsible for establishing Otago Museum's spider collection.

11.

In 1961, Ray 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.

12.

Ray 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.

13.

Ray Forster was elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.