Born in Mobile, Alabama, Carr was the son of a Presbyterian pastor, and grew up in Mobile, Fort Worth, Texas, and Savannah, Georgia. He studied zoology at the University of Florida, eventually specializing in herpetology. He further refined that interest to the study of turtles and eventually became one of the world's foremost authorities on sea turtles. He was married to Marjorie Harris Carr, a conservationist herself. While a student at UF, he became a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. From UF, he received bachelor's degree in 1932, M.S. in 1934, and Ph.D. in 1937. He started out as a high schoolscience teacher before becoming a college professor. He published numerous books and articles, including Ulendo: Travels of a Naturalist in and out of Africa, High Jungles and Low, So Excellent a Fishe, The Windward Road and several Time-Life books such as The Everglades and The Reptiles. He was also the author of the Handbook of Turtles, and with :fr:Coleman Jett Goin|Coleman J. Goin, Guide to the Reptiles, Amphibians and Freshwater Fishes of Florida. While a serious scientific and nature writer, he also had a remarkable sense of humor, which led him to publish the parody of scientific taxonomic keys - his A Subjective Key to the Fishes of Alachua County, Florida, affectionately known as the "Carr Key". Carr became a bit of a legend at the University of Florida, and students vied with one another to take his Community Ecology course in which they were involved in several major and minorfield trips around northern Florida and southern Georgia. Listening to Carr talk about the Sand Pinescrub near Ocala or his comments as he guided students through the Okefenokee Swamp in canoes was considered a great privilege. Carr was also known for his efforts in conservation, especially for sea turtles, helping convince Costa Rica to establish Tortuguero National Park in 1975. He was a co-founder of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, which helps to save and monitor sea turtles in Tortuguero, Costa Rica. He was often joined in his conservation work by his wife Marjorie Carr, who was a major advocate for conservation in her own right. In 1952 Carr was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.
Legacy
Founder and Scientific Director of Sea Turtle Conservancy from 1959 until his death in 1987.
A book about Carr entitled The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles: Archie Carr and the Origins of Conservation was recently published by Oxford University Press. This book was written by Frederick R. Davis, Assistant Professor of History at the Florida State University.
Carr's work is referenced in the 1985 romantic-drama film Turtle Diary.
Carr is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of snake, Sibon carri.
Works
Carr, Archie. Handbook of Turtles; the Turtles of the United States, Canada, and Baja California.
Carr, Archie. High Jungles and Low.
Carr, Archie, and :fr:Coleman Jett Goin|Coleman J. Goin. Guide to the Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes of Florida.
Carr, Archie. The Reptiles.
Carr, Archie. Ulendo: Travels of a Naturalist in and out of Africa.
Carr, Archie. So Excellent a Fishe: A Natural History of Sea Turtles..
Carr, Archie. The Everglades..
Carr, Archie. The Windward Road.
Carr, Archie . A Naturalist in Florida: A Celebration of Eden..
Academic genealogy
Archie Carr graduated with his PHD in 1938 from the University of Florida under J.S. Rogers. His academic ancestry passes from Rogers, through Stephen Alfred Forbes , the eminent evolutionary biologist and ecologist David Starr Jordan, to Louis Agassiz the eminent ichthyologist, geologist, and natural historian. Carr advised and graduated 18 PHD students while faculty at the University of Florida: D.A. Belkin, Karen A. Bjorndal, D.K. Caldwell, S.P. Christman, M.J. Corn, J.W. Crenshaw, Jr., D.C. Dietz, D.W. Ehrenfeld, D.E. Goodman, E.V. Gourley, H.F. Hirth, C.G. Jackson, J.F. Jackson, A.B. Meylan, J.A. Mortimer, Robert H. Mount, Peter C. Pritchard, and Douglas A. Rossman.
