Who do you consider to be the largest "pioneer" in the business?

And Sherman Minton.

Dr. Frederic L. Frye. He was the first, and still is the best, reptile Pathologist in the world. Just about every book on reptiles has him credited in them. He has done more work than anyone I can think of on the subject for many, many years.

Man, I wonder how many people here grew up with the Raymond Ditmars books on the bookshelf with well worn pages? I can remember soaking in the pictures of snakes I could only then dream of seeing.

The late Lloyd Lemke gets my vote. (but I admit to a bit of bias. Hell of a guy!)

Noah, one of the most righteous dudes to ever walk the planet. Without him we wouldnt have any reptiles or much of anything else for that matter :clap:


Digby Rigby balboa28279@mypacks.net

Interesting Thread

My vote would have to be

Joe Lazlo - for pioneering the art of brumation

Tom Crutchfiled, Louis Porus - for importing so many of the animals we now have in the hobby

Ditmars & Kaufield - for inspiring an entire generation of herpers

Bob Clark, Kim & Mark Bell, Rich, Don Soderburg, Wayne Hill, Lemke - for the breeding and marketing inspirations

All of our parents for allowing us to keep these neat animals when it was not a popular thing to do.

Two people come to mind.... neither mentiomed thus far... both have been responsible for sharing the wonder and excitement of this wonderful hobby.... the first being James K Langhammer ( I hope I got his name right, it's been an awful lot of years) who was very active in the Detroit area in both aquaria and herpetology.... he had a collection of star trek episodes before the thought of producing for private ownership was ever thunk, and was an important part of the Detroit zoo.... and the second person in this hobby that gets my utmost respect is Gene Mulleneoux, then of Phoenix AZ, whose dedication to the hobby and his reptile club affiliations bordered on passion.... Thanks for listening... Bean

Having been around for a lot more years than some of you, some of the names are maybe a little older than some of you remember.

I would pick them this way:

Pythons: Dave and Tracy Barker, Bob Clark
Corns: Rich Z and Don Soderberg
Zoo People: Joe Laslo
Importers/Exporters: Ray & Mike Van Ordstrand, Louie Porrus, Tommy Crutchfield, Buzz Purre, Slocum, Anson Wong
Pituophis: John Ginter, Bart Bruno, Randy Limburg, Lloyd Lemke
Kings: Bectel, Lemke, Osborne
Rosy Boas: Limburg, Lemke
Writers: Conant, Ditmars & Kaufield

Those were the folks that come to mind for me, one note that needs to be said if it were not for the importers/exporters many of the animals we currently have in collections would not have made it here. Even if they used sometimes dubious means to get it done. Frills, bearded, albino burmese etc etc.