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Roger Conant, 94, died peacefully in his sleep today at 12:30 am at his home in New Mexico.

T. Vandeventer

I saw that he had passed on the PARC website.

I'm one of the lucky ones who had the opportunuty to meet him and hear him talk in person.

His contributions to herpetology will immortalize him.
One can only imagine the thousands of hours that man spent in the field in order to compile the information in his books, field guides and papers.

Call me a weird snake-geek, but to me hearing the name "Roger Conant" as a kid was kind of like most people hearing a rock star's name!

his very name sent chills thru us kids growing up. i met him several times as a child at the philadelphia zoo growing up and his son lived within biking distance of my house. i was always going over there bringing him 'stuff' i found which he VERY patiently instructed me on. i still have the 1958 field guide [tape holding it together now] that i made my mother buy me one summer day in garwood mills in atlantic city. i've read it cover to cover a thousand times [by 1968] and have never seen its equal to this day. his little side observations about most species contained within are both priceless and right on. he was The Man and that little field guide shaped my interest very early and for always.......i'm glad he went peacefully, he was a peaceful man. God rest his soul..........

I met him as well, in 1998 at a St. Louis Herp Society meeting. He was truly a herping legend! I feel honored to have met him! He also autographed his field guide & autobiography for me.
One of the things that (non herp related) that impressed me was how strong a hand shake he had for a man in his late 80's!

God rest his soul!

Eric

You'll forever be in my library.

I never had the pleasure of meeting him. I have used his field guides almost exclusively (is there another one?)for the past 35 or so years. The field of Herpetology has lost one of the greats, but his contributions and his influence on modern Herpetology will remain with us forever.

I think the measure of a man is what he leaves behind. Just yesterday I answered a post using his field guide as a reference. Does anything else really need to be said?
Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Amen.........Conant's 1975 printing of that Peterson's Field Guide sits parked on my bookshelf next to Ditmar's '39 Field Guide to North American Snakes. Most folks have no idea the effort that was involved in collating all the data and photos in an era where herps were really not all that "cool".