Vol. 9, pp. 154-155

Asiatic Herpetological Research

2001

Obituary: Sherman Anthony Minton Jr.

Muhammad S. Khan
7740 NW, 47th Street Lauderhill, FL.33351, USADr.

Sherman Anthony Minton Jr., died of cancer inIndianapolis. Indiana,USA. on 15 June 1999, at theage of 80. He was born on the 24 February 1919, in
New Albany. Indiana, where he also attended school.

He had a fondness for amphibians and reptiles even in
his childhood. He was the eldest child of Senator
Sherman Minton Sr.. on whose suggestion young
Sherman chose medicine instead of law, since medicine was closer to zoology. He obtained a BS in Zool-MDin 1942 at Indiana University.
ogy in 1939 and an
He served during World War II in the U.S. Navy from

1943-1946. After the war, Sherman spent 1947-1948
at theUniversity of Michigan Zoology Department,

taking Herpetology and Microbiology. He later joined
the faculty of Indiana University School of Medicine,

Department of Microbiology and Immunology,
where he remained until he retired as Emeritus Proin thefessor in 1984. Dr. Minton's career presents a beautiful

amalgamation of medicine, microbiology, andherpetology.

Sherman married Madge Alice Shortridge Rutherford on 10 October 1943. while both were in military

He was in the Navy and she was flying withservice.

theWomen Air Force Service Pilots (WASP). Interest-ingly.

Madge has also been interested in snakes fromher childhood, so their relationship was also professional. They co-authored eight publications including

two books. Venomous Reptiles (Minton and Minton
1969. 1980) and Giant Reptiles (Minton and Minton.
1973).

Minton took a break from Indiana(1958-1962) toteach at the Basic Medical Sciences Institute. Karachi.

Pakistan (now Postgraduate Medical Center), as partof the U.S. AID program. He taught at the institute,reorganized the medical teaching courses, and headed

Sherman, with Madge's constant support and help,
produced over 170 articles, books and monographs.

He was a pioneer in the study of venomous reptiles
and toxicology. He was on the editorial board of thejournals Toxicon and Clinical Toxicology. He was thechairman and a member of the major professionalsocieties in his field

and received numerous awards

the institute for a short time.

and honors

He pioneered herpetological studies in Pakistan.
Both he and his wife Madge Minton traveled 44,000
milesindifferent

partsofPakistan,collecting

amphibians and reptiles and information about themfrom the local people. One of the results of this is thewell-illustrated paper on the amphibians and reptilesof Sind and Las Bela (1962). In 1965. he visited Iranand Pakistan under the sponsorship of American
Museum of Natural History and collected material forhis main book on the herpetology of Pakistan ( 1966).

for his work.

He also made a significant

contribution to the herpetology of Indiana

From 1972-1980 he joined several expeditions todifferent oceans to study biology of sea snakes

andother venomous sea animals. He was visiting professor in the Department of Zoology, University of New

England in Australia during 1980.

remembrance of Dr. Minton's services to theherpetology of Pakistan, the following fossil AmeriIn

2001

Asiatic Herpetological Research

can frog and Pakistani lizard and snakes have been
named after him:
Proacris mintoni Holman, 1961

Coluber karelini mintonorum Mertens, 1969

Gymnodactylus

mintoniGolubevandSzczerbak,

1981

Typhlops madgemintonai shermanai Khan, 1999
Dr.

Sherman A. Minton, Jr.,

issurvived by hiswidow Madge Rutherford Minton, and three daughters.

Literature Cited
Golubev. M., and Szczerbak, N. N. 1981. A new species of Gymnodactylus Spix, 1923 (Reptilia, Sauria,Gekkonidae) from Pakistan. Vestnik Zoolii 1981:40-45, (in Russian).

Holman, A. 1961. A fossil frog from the Lower
Miocene of Florida. Copeia 1961(3):354-355.
Khan, M. S. 1999. Two new species and a subspeciesof blind snakes of genus Typhlops from Azad Kashmirand Punjab, Pakistan. Russian Journal of Herpetology
6(3): 231-240.

Mertens. R. 1969. Die Amphibien und Reptilien WestPakistans. Stuttgarter Beitrage zur Naturkunde 197: 1-96.
S. A. 1962. An annotated key to theandamphibians
reptiles of Sind and Las Bela, West

Minton,Jr.,

Pakistan. American Museum Novitates 208

1:1-21.

Minton, Jr., S. A. 1966. A contribution to the herpetol-ogy of West Pakistan. Bulletin oftheAmerican

Museum of Natural History 134(2): 31-184.
Minton Jr., S. A., and Minton, M. R. 1969. Venomous
Reptiles. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 274 pp.

Minton Jr., S. A., and Minton, M. R. 1973. Giant Reptiles.

Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 345 pp.

Minton Jr., S. A., and Minton, M. R. 1980. VenomousReptiles. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 308 pp.

Stewart,M. M. 2000. Madge and Sherman Minton.

Copeia, 2000(1): 304-309.

Vol. 9, p. 155