E. Lendell Cockrum

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University of Arizona University of Kansas

E. Cockrum Obituary

COCKRUM, E. Lendell, passed away on November 22, 2009, in Sedona, Arizona. Known as Dr. Cockrum to his many students at the University of Arizona, where he taught zoology courses and studied mammals for more than 30 years. He specialized in the study of bats and was a world renowned expert on bat population dynamics and bat migration. Dr. Cockrum was born on May 29, 1920 in Sesser, Illinois. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas he moved to Arizona in 1950. He was married to Irma Pauline Cockrum for 63 years, who preceded him in death. He is survived by his two sons, David (Sally) of Alpine, Texas and Ward (Maggie) of Sedona, Arizona. He had four grandchildren, Dana Kasling (Kemp) of Austin, Texas, Chris Cockrum of Round Rock, Texas, Andrew and Ana-Alicia Cockrum of Sedona, Arizona; two great-grandchildren, Graydon and Anderson Kasling of Austin, Texas, and his sister, Sarah Kay Hatcher of Tucson. He had great joy in his life for his wife, his family and his career. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to your favorite charity in Lendell's name. Visitation at ABBEY FUNERAL CHAPEL, Friday, November 27, 2009, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Funeral Service to follow at 2:00 p.m. Arrangements by ABBEY FUNERAL CHAPEL, 3435 N. 1st Ave., Tucson, Arizona.

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Published by Arizona Daily Star on Nov. 25, 2009.

Memories and Condolences
for E. Cockrum

9 Entries

Gordon Bradshaw

December 14, 2009

My thoughts and prayers are with you in your time of grief. May your memories bring you comfort.

December 8, 2009

Saddend to hear of Dr. Cockrums passing. Many happy memories of the mammalogy class and the field trips back in '56-57. It was a privilege to have had that experience. My condolences to his family. Bob Moses Sierra Vista, AZ

December 8, 2009

8 Dec. 2009

I was sorry to hear of Dr. Cockrum's death. From 1956-58 I was a grad student at UA in Mammalogy under E.L. Cockrum. Those were among the best years of my life: wonderful country, good people, and a very good advisor who became a good friend. All my sympathies to the family.

Ken Lange, Baraboo, WI.

Mary Price

December 7, 2009

I was saddened to learn of Doc's passing upon returning home after 5 weeks in Madagascar on December 4. He was my PhD advisor in the 1970s, open-minded enough to take on a very green female student with zero field experience. He was a patient, hands-off advisor whose policy (in his words)was "to give you as much rope as you need to hang yourself." He was always available to talk, gave us all free access to his extensive reprint collection (no electronic resources in those days!), and generously helped scrounge materials and support for our work. I am very grateful for Doc's help and send heartfelt sympathy to his family. We all will miss his sense of fun.

December 7, 2009

I was very sorry to just learn of Dr. Cockrum's death. He was an undergraduate advisor for me, and I took his Mammalogy course, as well as Comparative Anatomy the one semester he taught that, in about spring, 1956. I went with some of his other grad students on a great trip to Alamos, Sonora in spring of 1958, and he gave me lots of advice, lots of times, about my work with bats, which eventually became my career research interest. Best wishes and sympathy to his family. Roger Carpenter (UA class of 1957)

Burhan Gharaibeh

November 25, 2009

I owe my PhD degree to Dr. E. Lendell Cockrum and thus I can never say thank you enough, Dr. Cockrum. I am so grateful. And I am happy that I did say that to you on few occasions. I was a student in Robert Baker's lab at Texas Tech University. Bob suggested that I finish up the work that Dr. Cockrum started on the systematics of Mammals of Tunisia for my dissertation project. Dr. Cockrum has already retired but was gracious enough to receive me in his home, donate a huge collection of mammalian specimens and his library which contained a large number of rare books and papers. He gave me a library reference listing on an old software and explained to me how to open it with DOS! And as I started getting familiar with Tunisian mammals, I had to call him and e-mail him and on one occasion drive over to Tucson to meet him and seek his advice. Even though Dr. Cockrum had already retired and could have easily referred me to the published literature and my Texas Tech mentors, he was generous enough to listen to my questions, advise me and subsequently correct hundreds of pages of material from my dissertation. Material that he had dealt with ad nausea in the mid 1970s and I am sure a task that was tiring, if not boring, for him. I managed to put together my dissertation thanks to him and as a member of my PhD committee, he came to my defense of dissertation mid August 1997 with his wife Irma. They had both driven the distance from Tucson to Lubbock in their car. My committee included Cockrum who was Baker’s PhD supervisor, Robert Bradley who was Baker’s former PhD student. That day, Cockrum lead the dissertation exam of a third generation of mammalogists. Dr. Cockrum: You will be greatly missed and once more, I am so grateful.
Burhan Gharaibeh, PhD
Stem Cell Research Center
The University of Pittsburgh

Kathryn Lance

November 25, 2009

I will never forget the wonderful classes I took with Dr. Cockrum back in the sixties. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to thank him before he died.

Philip Varney

November 25, 2009

Dr. Cockrum gave one of the most remarkable lectures I've ever heard on the final day of my zoology class. It was, of course, on bats, and the students in the Main Auditorium at the UofA gave him a standing ovation. That was in 1961, and his lecture made me want to be an even better and more inspiring teacher than I had hoped to be. After 27 years of teaching and 48 years later, I still remember how wonderful a teacher he was.

Tom Ayers

November 25, 2009

I will miss your dad very much, the original Bat Man. I know he is all ready in bridge game. My prayers are with you.

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