Judith Humphrey Shaw (1926-2015), upon hearing that I had been the Director of the National Agricultural Library (NAL), sought me out to tell that she had had an office at NAL where she was a researcher for the U. S. Department of Agriculture on the Index-Catalogue of Medical and Veterinary Zoology specializing in parasitology.  She had worked there for 37 years.  The work combined her love of research, classification and languages.

At her alma mater she established the University of Connecticut’s Judith Humphrey Parasitology fund in 1991.  It has enabled more than two hundred students to do field work and to travel to national and international conferences and workshops.

The slender one named for Shaw

With a twinkle in her eyes (which she always had) she told of having a parasite named for her.   It was a slender, elongated worm, Megalonchos shawae.  Returning from a trip to the hospital she told me (twinkle twinkle) how she had told one of her doctors about the parasite named for her.  Evidently, he told other doctors.  Soon, to her delight, she was visited by other doctors who wanted to meet the “parasite” lady.

She was an avid bird watcher and could whistle most bird songs.