WILLIAMS, Francis Xavier
WILLIAMS, Francis Xavier (1882-1967), entomologist with the 1905-1906 California Academy of Sciences expedition to the Galapagos Islands aboard the schooner Academy.
Francis Xavier Williams = [1939] Louisa Lewis Clark (1894-1965)
Williams died at age 85 in Chula Vista, CA.
The 1905-1906 California Academy of Sciences Galapagos expedition visited multiple Baja California islands, including:
- Isla San Martin, July 11, 1905
- Isla Geronimo, July 13, 1905
- Isla San Benito, July 14-17, 1905
- Isla Cedros, July 18, 1905
- Isla Natividad, July 19, 1905
Expedition participants included:
- Rollo Howard Beck (1870-1950), vessel master and ornithologist
- Edward Winslow Gifford (1887-1959
- Joseph Slayton Hunter (1879-1972 ), mammalogist
- Ernest Samuel King (1886-1948), herpetology assistant
- Frederick T. Nelson, Mate
- Washington Henry Ochsner, (1882-1927), geologist and conchologist
- J. J. Parker, navigator (didn't return with the vessel, having left over accusations of incompetence.)
- J. R. Slevin (1881-1957), assistant herpetologist
- Alban Stewart (1875-1940), botanist
- James White, cook
- Francis Xavier Williams (1882-1967), entomologist
“Francis Xavier Williams: Entomologist (1882-1967). Francis Xavier Williams was born on August 6, 1882, in Marquez, California. His family moved to San Francisco in 1887, and he quickly became immersed in natural history, particularly insects. He became acquainted with research at the California Academy of Sciences early in life through the entomologist and physician Edwin C. Van Dyke (1869-1952). Williams was an undergraduate at Stanford University during the 1905-1906 Galapagos expedition, graduating in 1908. He worked as a plant inspector at the Ferry Building in San Francisco from 1908 to 1910, then went to the University of Kansas as an assistant entomologist at the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Experiment Station. He traveled widely in the United States, conducting research in entomology, and in Guatemala, Australia, Philippines, Ecuador, Trinidad, British Guiana, Barbados, Brazil, New Caledonia, and East Africa.
Williams is the only member of the 1905-1906 expedition for whom a tape recording of his voice exists in the archives of the California Academy of Sciences. Toward the end of his life, he was closely associated with the San Diego Museum of Natural History. Williams died, following a stroke, on December 16, 1967, in Chula VIsta, California. He was preceded in death by his wife, Louisa Lewis (Clark) Williams, who died in 1965. ” [James, Matthew S. Collecting Evolution, (2017)].
