Hildegarde Howard

Hildegarde Howard (April 3, 1901 – February 28, 1998) was an American pioneer in paleornithology, mentored by the famous ornithologist, Joseph Grinnell, at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) and in avian paleontology. She was well known for her discoveries in the La Brea Tar Pits, among them the Rancho La Brea eagles. And she discovered and described Pleistocene flighless waterfowl at the prehistoric Ballona wetlands of coastal Los Angeles County at Playa del Rey. In 1953, Howard became the first woman to be awarded the Brewster Medal. She was also the first woman president of the Southern California Academy of Sciences.
Biography.
Howard was born in Washington, D.C., and moved with her parents to Los Angeles in 1906; her father was a scriptwriter and her mother a musician and composer. In 1920 Howard commenced her studies at the Southern Branch of the University of California (later renamed UCLA). Her first biology teacher, Pirie Davidson, inspired her to change her concentration from journalism to biology; Davidson helped her get a job working for the paleontologist Chester Stock. She completed her bachelor's degree at U.C. Berkeley, where she took courses in paleontology. In 1924, Howard joined the scientific staff of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History part-time; her work there on the extinct turkey "Parapavo californicus" was credited towards her master's degree at Berkeley, where she would also earn the Ph.D. in 1928, with a dissertation on the fossil birds of the Emery Shellmound. In 1929, Howard returned to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Named chief curator of science in 1951, she retired in 1961, but continued to conduct research and to publish on avian evolution. While at the museum and in retirement, Howard described 3 families, 13 genera, 57 species, and 2 subspecies.
Howard married Henry Anson Wylde in 1930. Wylde, who would become chief of exhibits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, died in 1984.
Significant works.
Howard published some 150 scientific papers over the course of her career.