Robert L. (Robert Lewis) Packard

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on August 10, 1928, Robert Lewis Packard studied at the University of Nebraska before earning both his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Kansas. He later joined Texas Tech University, where he served as curator of mammals and built a reputation as a serious researcher in mammalogy.

Packard is associated with detailed scientific work on rodents, including studies of the genus Baiomys. Some of his research has remained accessible through public-domain and library collections, which has helped keep his writing in circulation for later readers.

He died in Lubbock, Texas, on April 8, 1979, after a long illness. Although he is remembered mainly within mammalogy rather than popular science, his publications show the patient, exact kind of scholarship that helps map the natural history of North American mammals.