I send my condolences to the family of John Alcock. His passing revived many fond memories of our friendship, interactions and collaborations. John and I first met in 1974 at a conference of the Society for the Study of Evolution held in Tempe, AZ. At the end of my conference presentation (topic: female mate choice in an insect species) John introduced himself and offered some encouraging remarks about my research talk, which I needed as I was a grad student at my first scientific conference. We immediately saw our similar interests in and perspectives on evolution and behavior, which was a new and controversial field in biology at the time. John told me then of his book coming out soon and published in first edition one year later, Animal Behavior An Evolutionary Approach. This book was foundational in the rise of behavioral ecology and very highly cited in the scientific literature. To date it has been published in 11 editions! John and I kept in touch after 1974 and in 1980 began collaboration on a book, The Evolution of Insect Mating systems, published in 1983. John could write it beautifully the first time. The rest of us take several tries to get something scribbled out. Our book has been high cited and influential, including the basis of two scientific conferences, one in 1985 at Uppsala University (Sweden) and one in 2013 at St. Andrews University, Scotland. The latter was a conference entitled “30 Years of Thornhill and Alcock”. Many scholars in insect behavioral ecology gave research talks there. On visits to AZ to work with John on our book I had opportunity to see his field sites where he studied hilltopping mating systems of various insects. And opportunity to sit in on his lectures in his large undergraduate course on animal behavior at ASU. His students during lectures were passionately involved with learning the material. He reached them at a level that I had never seen before or since in any classroom. John’s impact on so many through his research, writing and teaching is eternal. This brilliant, gifted man will be remembered and missed by many.
