Phillip Clarence Heemstra (9 December 1941 – 29 August 2019) was an American-South African
ichthyologist. He was born in Melrose Park,
Illinois,
United States as the son of Clarence William Heemstra and his wife, Lydia (born Epcke). He attended school in Ottawa, Illinois, and completed a B.Sc.
Zoology in 1963 at the
University of Illinois at Urbana, Illinois, as well as his MSc degree (1968) and doctorate (1974) in
marine biology at the
University of Miami in
Miami,
Florida. He moved to live in South Africa in 1978.[1]
At the time of his death, Heemstra was a curator emeritus of the
South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB, formerly the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology). He specialized in ichthyology and marine fish taxonomy.[2]
Career
Heemstra was, among other things, a
biologist at the marine laboratory of the U.S. Department of Natural Resources in Florida, and from 1978 to 2001 a curator of fish at J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology in
Grahamstown (now the SAIAB).
His work included research on systematics, biology (especially reproduction), zoo-geography and marine fish conservation, a survey of the fish diversity of
Southern Africa and the western
Indian Ocean, and the identification of marine fish for institutions in South Africa and overseas. He has also been a consultant to numerous publications and the author or co-author of several books, including Coastal Fishes of Southern Africa[3] with Elaine Heemstra. He received many honours from various institutions.
Heemstra married Elaine Margaret Grant on 15 March 1991; Elaine has a son, Andrew Grant. Phil and his first wife, Valerie, have two daughters, Lydia and Julia.[citation needed]