Fred Ray Cagle

Fred Ray Cagle, often written as Fred R. Cagle, (October 9, 1915 – August 8, 1968) was an American herpetologist and professor who specialized in the study of turtles.

Biography Cagle was the youngest of four children of Fred and Agnes Cagle (née Guiney). From an early age he showed an interest in dissecting frogs and kept live specimens in the family workshop. When Cagle was twelve years old, his father was killed in a natural gas explosion in a coal mine. With financial support from his siblings Clarence and Mary, Cagle was able to attend college during the Great Depression.

He earned a Bachelor of Education degree in 1937 from the Southern Illinois Normal University (now Southern Illinois University Carbondale). In June 1938, he married Josephine Alexander, with whom he had a son and a daughter. That same year, he received his Master of Science and in 1943 completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan under the supervision of Norman Edouard Hartweg with the dissertation The growth of the slider turtle Pseudemys scripta elegans. For this research, he conducted field studies on the red-eared slider between 1939 and 1941 in southern Illinois, while also serving as lecturer and museum director at Southern Illinois Normal University.