Hobart M. (Hobart Muir) Smith

Born in Stanwood, Iowa, on September 26, 1912, Hobart Muir Smith became one of the best-known American herpetologists of the 20th century. Reliable biographical sources note that he was born Frederick William Stouffer and later built his academic path through Kansas State University, the University of Kansas, and postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan.

Smith is widely remembered for his extraordinary contribution to the study of reptiles and amphibians. Sources describe him as having named more than 100 new species and as a major force in documenting the herpetology of Mexico and North America. He taught at several universities, including the University of Illinois and the University of Colorado Boulder, where he later became professor emeritus.

He died in Boulder, Colorado, on March 4, 2013, at age 100. Obituaries and institutional biographies remember him not only for the sheer scale of his scientific output, but also for a lifetime spent building knowledge that shaped generations of researchers.