Dr. Judith Anne Harris quietly slipped from this life at the age of 81 on Tuesday August 13, 2019, after a long illness.  Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on February 20, 1938, to Homer and Josephine (née Winsell) Harris, she was raised in Norwalk, California.

 

She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Paleontology from the University of California, Berkeley, and after field work on Rusinga Island in Kenya, was awarded a PhD from Girton College at Cambridge University in England.  She was Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. A pioneer in the field of paleoecology and a life-long advocate for women in science, she inspired many; her last work, the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship, is being published this year with her co-author and former student, Kenneth Carpenter.  

 

She was a member of the Linnean Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology.  

 

She is survived by her wife, Mary Ann Ziobo, her children, Antony Van Couvering, Anne Van Couvering , David Van Couvering, and Elizabeth Van Couvering, as well as five grandchildren, Malcolm Van Couvering, Ariel Van Couvering, Michael Van Couvering, Charlotte Ornebring and John Ornebring. She was predeceased by her brother, Patrick Harris. 

 

In lieu of flowers, and in memory of her lifelong commitment to the environment and social justice, please send donations in her name to the Nature Conservancy or SAGE.  Her deep wisdom and love will be missed by all who knew her.  

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.  -- Khalil Gibran