F. WAYNE GRIMM
Terrestrial Malacologist![[F. Wayne Grimm]](wayne.jpg)
was mentored in his youth by eminant malacologist Leslie Hubricht. He immigrated to Canada in the early 1970's, donating most of his mollusc collection to the National Museum in Ottawa, and working on the terrestrial Gastropods of Canada until his death in June of 2005. His death leaves a major gap in Canadian malacology, because while his field experience was continental and his knowledge was encyclopedic, he hadn't published much in his later years. He was also a diligent student of the Insects that shared alvar habitats, in particular, with his snails.
Shortly before his death, the manuscript he'd been working on with Fred Schueler and Aleta Karstad "Introduced Land Snails and Slugs of Northeastern North America" was being expanded into "Terrestrial Gastropods of Canada." In preparation for this publication, and due to the closing ot the Eastern Ontario Biodiversity Museum (where Wayne had been Invertebrate Curator), most of his collections and papers were moved to the BMNHC, and after his death all of this material was deposited here.
![[Snail Launch, a volume reduction Art Show and Project Expo]](launch2.jpg)
featuring paintings, cards, and books from the Bishops Mills Natural History Centre. There will also be the opportunity to tour the transformation of the BMNHC into a Terrestrial Gastropod laboratory that will carry on the work of Wayne Grimm in the production of
Land Snails and Slugs of Canada,
and the curation of Wayne's collections and papers.
items featured include:
* Ed Lawrence's new Gardening Grief & Glory book, illustrated by Aleta
* 20 years of Karstad/Schueler books, all suitable for seasonal gifting
* the new Kids' or introductory edition of theNatureJournal(.ca)
* paintings, old & new, 20% discount during show
* cards of Aleta's journal watercolours
* tours of the Terrestrial Gastropod collection
30 Main St, Bishops Mills.
Call 258-3107 (lab) or 258-7843 (residence) to set up a visit.
For directions follow the map
The Terrestrial Gastropods of Canada project will recover as much as possible of what Wayne knew, by digitizing his manuscripts, databasing his specimen identifications, and making both of these available on the internet, in the hope that this will spark general interest in these neglected invertebrates. Our colleagues, Robert Forsyth and Isabelle Picard, are the leading terrestrial malacologists in western and eastern Canada. Work has already begun in three parallel streams: 1) Curating Wayne's specimens, 2) cataloguing and scanning up Wayne's documents, and 3) Manuscript and illustrations for the Field Guide. We've put up a prototype of the website we hope to build, and Robert has expanded beyond his Land Snails of British Columbia to compiling what's known about the terrestrial Gastropods of the rest of Canada.
Besides his malacological work, Wayne had extensive holistic and super-holistic interests, attempting to meld scientific and mystical knowledge of the world. Through the 1980's he had worked on the effects of microwave and other artificial radiation on organisms and ecosystems, and he composed numerous expositions of ways of moving harmoniously towards world peace. Visitors to the Snail Launch will be able to browse his library, a striking mixture of physics, biology, and both classic & recent theosophiical works.