Giles W. Mead

Giles W. Mead Jr (b. 1928, d. 2003) was an American ichthyologist and museum curator who was the director of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in the 1970s. He gained his doctorate from Stanford University before going on to work at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as a fish taxonomist. He then worked at the Smithsonian Institution before moving to Harvard University, where he was the curator of fishes at the Museum of Comparative Zoology and a professor of biology.

Early life Giles W. Mead was born on February 5, 1928, in New York City. His father was Giles W. Mead, a co-founder of Union Carbide, and his mother was Elise. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1935. He gained his Bachelor's in 1949, Master's in 1952 and Ph.D. in 1953 from Stanford University, while also working at the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. While studying for his post-graduate degrees, he joined a group of ichthyology and herpetology students who were being taught by George S. Myers in the university's Natural History Museum.

Career Mead successfully completed his doctorate in 1953, after which he joined the BCF Laboratory, Woods Hole, although his time at BCF was interrupted by a short period of enlistment in the U.S. Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland. After the Army, he returned to the BCF at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., replacing Isaac Ginsburg as a fish taxonomist. He occupied this post for 4 years before moving to Harvard, where from 1960 to 1970 he was the curator of fishes and a professor of biology. He left Harvard to return to Los Angeles as director of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. In this spot, he successfully fought the museum's corner in opposition to Proposition 13. He also oversaw the addition of a new wing to the museum and the opening of a new branch of the museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. He resigned from that post in 1978.