CONCHOLOGIST

VOLUME XXXVI, No. 1 ISSN 0885-1263
aL

401
.T4Z
INVZ

_ FEBRUARY, 2000

The Texas Conchologist is the official publication of the Houston Conchology
Society, Inc., and is published occasionally at Houston, Texas. Itis es as
part of the dues to all its members.

The Society holds reguiar meetings the fourth Wednesday in each of the follow-
ing months: August, September, October, January, February, March, April, and
May. In November, the meeting is held the third Wednesday. An annual auction
is held in place of the March or April Meeting

Meetings are held at Southside Place Club House, 3743 Garnet, Houston, Texas.
Meetings begin at 8:00 p. m.

The Texas Conchologist is published October, and May. Itis mailed postpaid to
regular members in U.S. postal zones. Overseas members will be charged ad-
ditional postage. Only one copy will be mailed to a family membership.

Dues extend from the beginning of the fiscal year of June 1 through May 31.
However, the May issue of the Texas Conchologist each year is the second issue
due on the regular dues year beginning June 1 of the previous year. Member-
ships will be accepted throughout the year but will receive issues of that fiscal
year. Members receive meeting Newsletters and have all other privileges pro-
vided by the Society's by-laws.

Rates and Dues

Family membership $12.00
Single Membership $10.00
Student membership $ 6.00
Single issues $ 2.50
Extra sets mailed to members $10.00
(Postage for overseas members required)
Subscription : $12.00
(Seamail $5.00, Airmail outside U.S. $8.00)

Co- Editor Editorial Advisor
Darwin Alder Dr. Helmer Odé
5415 Dickson St. 3319 Big Bend Dr.
Houston, TX 77007 Austin, TX 78731
(713) 880-5946 (512) 452-7799

Scientific Advisor/Co-Editor
Dr. John Wise
Houston Museum of Natural Science
Houston, TX 77030
(713) 639-4677

The Texas Conchologist accepts contributions for publication from amateurs,
students, and professionals, subject to approval by the Editors. Manuscripts
should be typed and double spaced, and should be in the hands of the Editors
the first day of the month preceding publication dates. Photos accompanying
articles are welcomed.

The Houston Conchology Society,

Family, Friends & Associates

Join together in Honoring
Mrs. Constance E. Boone
&

Dr. John |. McHenry

Connie Shelled:

Australia

South Africa
Argentina

Cabo San Lucas
The Philippines

The Bahamas
Costa Rica

Mexico
Belize

Brazil
Guaymas

Zanzibar
Puerto Rico

Panama
Harbour Island

The Solomons

TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

In this edition we honor Constance E. Boone and Dr. John |. McHenry.

| met Connie on the beach at St. Joe Island, Texas. | was invited to join
the Houston Conchology Society. From my earliest days in the club, |
have known of Connie's greatest loves in this life...shells, shelling trips,
The Houston Museum of Natural Science, The Houston Conchology
Society, and most importantly, the Texas Conchologist.

As Co-editor and contributor to the Texas Conchologist, | know what a
labor of love the publication is. Long hours of typing, correcting, printing
and distribution, are involved. "Her" publication is reknowned worldwide
in the scientific community and in the lives of those that simply love
shells. Nothing else shows the influence on the club and science, as
does Connie's work on the Texas Conchologist. Connie encouraged people
to write articles for her beloved Conchologist. It was a vehicle in which
she could shine, and it was brilliant.

Connie had a special feature in the Texas Conchologist, called Search
and Seizure. She presented a great variety of interesting articles, obser-
vations and points of view.

| was with her In the Bahamas, when she found a Charonia variegata
(Triton's Trumpet). She was very pleased to add this self-collected shell
to her collection. On a trip to Mexico, | found a fresh dead argonaut and
she found a live argonaut laying eggs.

| would be invited to Connie's house for long chats. We would talk of
shells, shelling trips, shellers, research, and many other wonderful top-
ics.

Pat McElroy worked at the Museum along with other members of the
shell club. Connie would have them help in the cataloging of the museum
collection. Pat told me once that she and Connie were talking before
Pat's first grandchild was born. Connie wondered how many more years
of shelling trips she would have. Pat's grandson is now 12. Connie had
12 more years of trips, each of which she enjoyed as only she could

Connie had great influence on all of us who knew her in any way. She
inspired, cajoled, supported and chastized but always loved and appre-
ciated us.

We all thought that Connie was invincible and would live forever. A lady
who descended in a two person submarine at the age of 80, could do
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TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

anything. She lived her life fully and as she wished to. She was always
planning her next trip, and was very curious about where anyone was
going next for a shell trip. | was told that she would like to pass away
while on a shelling trip. She died on a shelling trip to Australia in Sep-
tember of 1999.

At her memorial service Truett Latimer remarked that Connie was al-
ways the editor, and always a newspaperman and that she would have to
only correct a few things about my remarks.

As a postscript to my associations with Connie, | visited with her sons
Chris and Nick at her home. Rarely was anyone invited to visit her shell
room upstairs. Chris asked me if i would like to take a look. Of course
i couldn't turn down such an offer. It was wonderful to see some of her
most prized and treasured shells. Chris pointed to a picture of his broth-
ers and their shell collection, the ribbon they won, and said.. this is what
started it all.

Helmer Odé writes:

It is now more than forty years ago that | first met Connie Boone — the
precise time and place | have forgotten, and discovered that she was
very much interested in shells and shelling. This interest, in the early
days fed by regular beach trips, was to intensify over the years, so
that she finally became a national treasure for the malacological
community of the U.S.A. Her great merits for malacology need not be
mentioned here in detail and | will mainly dwell on some more personal
recollections.

For many years Connie organised and catalogued the fine general and
regional Gulf of Mexico collections of mollusks for the Houston
Museum of Natural Science, a collection, which now has become one
of the finest museum collections of shells in the southwest. She
started that work during the directorship of Tom Pulley and held office
in a basement room the walls of which were lined with an outstanding
malacological book collection, which is probably the best source of
malacological information in the southwest outside of California. All
other available wallspace was filled with low cabinets whose drawers
were filled with boxes full of shells being worked at or ready for final
storage, and on top of the cabinets were stacked cardboard boxes full
of new samples, just arrived. In the middle of the room surrounded by
all this, was a large table on which microscopes, shells and newly

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TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

arrived publications vied for a place. | always considered it a privilege
to visit her there and looked forward with great pleasure to spend most
of the day discussing topics of interest to us in surroundings congenial
to both of us.

In that room she started the immense task, while training and super-
vising some quite willing but not always,knowledgable helpers, to
properly catalogue the malacological material of the museum, a task
without end, because the collection was growing by leaps and bounds.
She attracted new acquisitions from many sources and in more recent
years Connie participated in several collecting trips worldwide. | sadly
realise that all this has come to an end now she did not return from her
last trip to Australia.

Perhaps my strongest and most poignant recollections are those of
the early days of our friendship. There come to mind many visits to
Connie ‘s home, when her husband still lived and she displayed some
of her finest shells. Then there are the many hours we assisted each
other to learn the ins and outs of conchology during the countless
Sunday sessions at the home of Harold Geis, working on the Gulf of
Mexico material. | am saddened to realise that now many of those
who participated in that work are gone. But those sessions have left a
wonderful memory in which Connie plays an important role. The
_ Participants in these sessions had sorted at home parts of samples
obtained in the Gulf of Mexico survey, which was largely organised by
Harold Geis and Tom Pulley and which produced extensive offshore
material from many environments, including coral reefs and shale
domes. Several agencies collected for us, including the U.S. navy.
That material, reported over many years in the Texas Conchologist
(see many earlier issues) was sorted out, labelled provisionally and
listed with pertinant data. Duting those work sessions Connie played
an important role in that work — in fact she did all the listing of data —
and already demonstrated her leadership qualities and gave often
excellent and sensible advise. Because of her unwavering attitude
with respect to scientific publication she was also responsible to
maintain the high quality of the publication of the Houston Conchology
Society. In short she was preparing herself for the important role she
was to play later in the A.M.U. Originally all the material of the survey
and other shells were stored in a little metal shed on the museum
grounds, now covered by new buildings of the enlarged museum.
When in the new addition to the museum a large shell exhibit was
installed, Connnie helped to organise it into its beautiful and spectacu-
lar presentation to the public.

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TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

| am extremely thankful to Connie for her devotion to malacology and
am deeply in debt to her, for she has by hard work at the museum
made the entire effort by Harold Geis and myself, spent on the Gulf of
Mexico survey, useful and available to the scientific commmunity so
that our work can bear fruit. | shall not forget her.

Barbara Hudson notes:

Connie and | had many wondertul trips together to some great beaches
around the world. We also had some adventures--such as losing our
supply of water on a camping trip, and being stranded on a sand bar
with the water rising fast. We had celebrated our December birthdays
together for many years-exchanging snails for her and frogs for me.
She was an excellent teacher, and | treasure the knowledge she gave
me. | really miss our long phone conversations about shells and
books. Shelling trips will never be quite the same without my friend.

Richard Yuill, a former editor of the Texas Conchologist says:

Connie was an “amateur” scientist, but well schooled-self-schooled.
That is to say, she did not have a college degree in marine sciences or
malacology, but she knew more about mollusks and marine sciences
than many Masters and Ph.D. prepared scientists, myself included.
Connie was a born skeptic, and skepticism is the soul of science. For
skepticism is what makes the scientist look for proof, whether by
careful observation or by experiment.

A simple tale illustrates her skepticism.

On my first trip to Belize, Connie passed on the information that the
locals of Caye Caulker considered the mangrove swamps that edged
the islands to be prime habitat of the cowry Cypraea zebra. Connie
was skeptical because: 1) the water surrounding mangrove roots tends
to be turbid, or murky with suspended solids, and 2) Connie herself
had never collected C. zebra from this habitat. Lacking logical proof
that mangroves were good habitat, and lacking personal observation,
Connie was skeptical.

On one of our first evenings at Caye Caulker, | decided to take a stroll
by myself down the beach, flippers, snorkel and mask in hand. Just
before dusk, | wanted one more leisurely snorkeling view of a little
mangrove islet that was 10 meters off the shoreline of Caye Caulker

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TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

next to a boat cut at the northern end of the island. It was already one
of my favorite spots to snorkel because the current through the boat
cut provided a constant supply of tropical fish along the edge of the
mangrove roots. Just before dark, | caught a glimpse of the “tentacled”
flesh of a cowry mantle against one of the prop roots almost at the
water’s edge. This was an thrilling sight for me, because | had never
self-collected a live cowry.

| must have been a strange sight. | had to climb out of the water onto
the islet to approach the cowry from the landward side, not because
the animal was likely to scamper away, but because no matter what
angle | tried, my arms were about six inches too short to reach my
gem. | climbed out of the water, my flippers tripping and hindering me
in the tangle of mangrove roots. My mask was still firmly on my face.
| am virtually blind without glasses and in the failing light, | really
needed the lenses glued to the inside of my mask. When | finally
reached the cowry, | was ecstatic!

As soon as | returned to our small motel, | showed Connie my prize
and told her | had found it directly on the mangrove roots. She was
almost as excited as | was. She considered that sufficiently close
enough to first hand knowledge that C. zebra does occur directly
within mangroves. | knew Connie well enough by then to know that
accepting my observation as fact, was high praise indeed.

After all, Connie might as well have been from Missouri since her
watchwords were “Show me’ and the first corollary “I’d rather see for
myself.”

Freida White, who is Curator of Malacology at the Brazosport Museum
of Natural Science contributed this:

Long before | met Connie, Mildred Tate talked about their frequent
shelling trips to local beaches, before they both became absorbed in
Museum responsibilities... Connie in Houston, Mildred in Lake Jack-
son. My foremost memory of Connie is her continual challenging of
everyone to learn more about mollusks. She never let you think, fora
minute, that you knew enough..or that you were trying hard enough to
learn. We will be motivated for years to come, by thoughts of her
intense focus.

Mildred Harry penned the following:

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TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

| shall always remember Connie for her inquiring mind, the enthusiasm
and energy that she brought to any project she tackled, her generosity
of spirit and her sense of adventure. All of these qualities were
expressed in her many achievements, two of which | remember very
well. As president of AMU in 1994, she planned and presided over the
programs, both professional and social, which "show-cased" her
beloved state of "TEXAS": The symposium on the Mollusks of Texas,
the collection at the HMNS, the Tex Mex dinner, the ranch barbecue
and the elegant banquet at the Hyatt. The other event was the
celebration of her 80th birthday in a submersible in the Bahamas
collecting her very own slit shell. That! call high adventure!

It was a joy to be with Connie. She was a ready source of information
on many issues. She is a part of the history of HMNS, AMU and the
Houston Conchology Society.

Hal and | shared many happy occasions with Connie. | am grateful to
have known Connie as a dear friend. It was a special treat to have
renewed our friendship at the AMU Meeting the week of July 4th. The
paper she presented on "Women in Malacology" was the best on the
panel. It was typical of Connie to be active and productive to the very
end. | miss her very much.

At her Memorial Service Virginia Joiner gave the following remarks.

We are honoring Connie for her knowledge of, work with, and enthusi-
asm for malacology. While it is sometimes difficult to separate Connie
from shells, she was so much more.

Connie was interested in everything. She and | could read the same
newspaper or magazine and she would find much more that I. As most
of you know Connie was a newspaper woman by training. She was
ever the editor. There were some in the museum who wouldn't think of
sending something out without Connie’s seal of approval. She was
passionate about sports: particularly Tennis and André Aggasiz, and
University of Texas Longhorns. She read almost anything and every-
thing: particularly mysteries; and adventure novels. It was not uncom-
mon for her to stay up late reading. She often went to the bookstore
on Friday afternoon, bought several books and by Sunday night was
out of reading material. One of the novels that she read had an error
about shells in it. Guess what —she wrote the arthor telling him of his
error.

TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

She loved traveling and seeing new things. Wherever she went she
found shells and everything else. Either it was the shells themselves,
or she found related things or she found things that interested her for
some other reason. In Hong Kong she had heard about a research
station in a very remote place. She engaged a taxi with a driver that
didn’t really speak English and wasn’t sure where they were going.
They left early in the morning and returned late in the afternoon.
Connie was thrilled at how nice they had been and how she was able
to purchase publications from them. | think some of them were in
Chinese. In London she found shells prints and Christmas ornaments.
While in Mexico she went to an outdoor seafood restaurant and asked
for mussels and other molluscs that she could buy. She gave the
meat to a patron and left happy with the shells. On “shell trips” she
returned with many artifacts of the country. In Africa it might be
necklaces, in the South Seas it might be woven objects such as
baskets. Always it was something that would be representative of the
place she had been.

Connie always believed that she could do anything that she wanted to
do. She recognized no limitations placed on her and who would dare
anyway. As a young Mother she went night fishing on the piers in
Galveston and Corpus Christi. She went all over the Texas Coast
shelling alone. Not only did she believe this about herself but also
about other women. She was so proud to be a part of the panel at
AMU this year on women in Malacology. She was pleased with the
number of people who came to hear the discussion and with her part in
it. She feft that women were accepted in malacology much more
readily than in other areas. She was a mentor to the young ladies at
the museum, particularly in Collections department.

She mentored many people in malcology. One of her most favorite
things to do at a convention was to sit with the students. She loved to
hear what they were doing. For years she has been corresponding
with students from all over the world and collecting for them when they
needed specimens from the Gulf Coast. As many members of the
club know Connie would help any person who had an interest and was
willing to work to learn about shells. She always looked to the future
times that they had in a small Texas town before and during the
depression. She was proud of what they accomplished and of the land
of which they were a part.

Connie’s legacy is her joy of life, her dedication to the pursuit of
knowledge, her kindness to others, and her determination to carry on
regardless. 7

TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

The following was read by the editor at Connie's Memorial Service:

My name is Darwin Alder, | am a member of the Houston, Conchology
Society and for the last few years, assisted Connie Boone in the
publication and dstrutton ofthe Texas Conchologist.

Connie had several loves in this life. She loved shelling, and shelling
trips, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, The Houston Conchol-
ogy Society and the Texas Conchologist.

Connie had a tremendous love and appreciation for shells and mol-
lusks. She collected them personally world-wide and purchased those
that she couldn't find herself, to have one of the finest personal
collections of shells. Those of us who were priviliged to enter her
house and were treated to a glimpse of her astonishingly beautiful and
magnificent collection, would invariably exclaim...Oh My... She
appreciated the beauty of the shell and the mollusk that made it. She
wanted to know the names of all the shells and worked tirelessly to
that goal.

She loved the Houston Museum of Natural Science. She was curator
of Malacology and was instrumental in displaying the collection at the
Strake Hall. She enjoyed science and worked very diligently to further
the study of shells and mollusks. The Museum houses one of the
finest collections of Texas and Gulf of Mexico Shells in the world.

She loved the Houston Conchology Society and was the driving force
for many years for the shell club. It became one of the largest shell
clubs in the country. Under her guidance the club grew from a few
members to over 100. She loved the members and worked hard to get
them interested in naming , cataloging and learning the scientific
names of shells. She would seldom just simply name them for you,
but if you showed potential to add to the knowledge and science of
malacology, she would help you all that she could. She was very
aware of the interests of the members of the club. During her years as
president, she presented the officers and board of directors with
personally selected shells. She looked for a shell or family of shells
that person liked, and gave them an appropriate gift. she was the
impetus for some helping arrange some of the finest shelling trips for
those members of the club who wanted to participate. She was
curious to the end, and always wanted to know what shells you had
found. She loved mollusks and shells, from the microscopic to the

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TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

grandiose. She always said that if you knew the scientific names, you
could speak to anyone else in the world with a similar interest.

Although some thought her use of Latin names a bit dificult, it was
just as easy to use the Latin name, such as Epitonium angulatum as
it was saying Angulate wentletrap. She stressed the importance of
the location data being accurate, for that was the single most impor-
tant piece of information to science, the when and where of the
acquisition of the shell.

Connie told me once that her true love and labor of love was the Texas
Conchologist. This publication has been in existence for over 30
years. She loved Texas, and all things Texan. The Gulf of Mexico and
the shells of Texas were very important to her, and she wanted to let
people know that Texas was a very important place to collect and
study shells. The findings of the Northwest Gulf of Mexico are well
represented in the pages of the Texas Conchologist. This publication
is very important to malacologists and is used and requested by
scientists, students, and scholars from around the world. The Texas
Conchologist is a very imporrtant part of her legacy.

| have enjoyed many long and wonderful conversations with Connie. |
have enjoyed her"OH MY!" room, her knowledge of shells and

_ shelling, and some of the finest collecting trips of my lifetime. At the
club meeting in May, she asked me to present a program on my trip
to Alaska. | felt honored to share it with her and the club because it
was a place that | had visited, the she had not. She was a scientist, a
friend, and the source of much information on shells and shelling. |
would like to close with a poem that | composed...

Connie Boone
a tribute composed
by Darwin G. Alder,
read, Nov. 19, 1999. at the
Houston Museum of Natural Science

Oh, how she loved her shells
The tale’s for me to tell

Of trips so near and far
With her collecting jar

TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

Shelling was her love
A gift from up above

So sad she’s gone away
Her memories here to stay

Her legacy still lives
And happiness it gives

On Heaven’s shore she will shell
For the shells she loved so well

She will know all the names
Of the shells that gave her fame

On celestial shores will find,
A shell of every kind.

to a wonderful lady and a fine friend.

On February 5, 2000, Dr. John I. McHenry of the Houston Conchology
Society departed this life.

| first met Dr. McHenry at the meeting of the Houston Conchology
Society. He had always had a great interest in nature and things. He
loved sea shells and had shells from early dealers in the 1960’s up to
the time of his retirement, in the late 1990’s. He was also interested
in pre-Columbian art, he had amassed a magnificent collection of
butterflies, and fossils, and sea shells.

Dr. McHenry was very instrumental in furthuring the cause of science
and was a renaissance man, interested and captivated by almost
everything.

Dr. McHenry would come by my house with donations to the auction
and sale table of the Houston Conchology Society. He would bring me
an excellent donation of world-wide seashells. | would clear a little

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TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

space on my kitchen table and he would wow me with his knowledge
and generosity. He often told me he had to agonize over giving up a
shell. Perhaps it had a special meaning to him, or perhaps he thought
it specially beautiful. He was generous in every sense. | am certain
that over the years he donated more than 2,000 shells to our auction,
not to mention the donations of the shells directly to the Museum of
Natural Science.

Dr. John and | would drink V-8 juice or a can of Dr. Pepper and discuss
the beauty and name of each of the many shells. He loved shells and
told me once that he sometimes experienced obsessive compulsive
behaviors. He bought in quantity from dealers and often had many
more than one of the same shell. One of my favorite stories of him is
delightful, he would donate a shell to the auction, | would place it on
display and he would buy it back. There were several of the genera
Conus (Cones) Cypraea (Cowries) and Voluta (Volutes) that he
donated and repurchased at least three times. We always kept the
original labels and the donated labels and were able to trace the path
of the shell. He also said if he had had a shell for a long enough time
he could donate it to the club for someone else to enjoy as much as
he had.

Dr. McHenry’s legacy lives on in each of our lives. We remember his
_ generosity, his kindness, his courtesy, his consideration and his
healing touch as a Physician and how he touched our very souls.

On Tuesday, February 8, 2000, Dr. John | McHenry was eulogized and
honored by his many friends and family at St. Luke’s Methodist
Church, in Houston, Texas. He is survived by his wife Jean, his son
John, and daughters Allison and Susan, and a host of family and
friends.

The telephone would ring
and Dr. John would bring

a gift for you and me
a dozen, two or three

he loved to collect shells
and butterflies as well

Treasures from the sea
and among them there would be
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TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 FEBRUARY, 2000

Rarities for sale
and with each one a tale

he loved the young and old
from pottery to gold

Cones and cowry shells
were ones he knew so well

Sometimes he would give a shell
and say to me, Oh Well!

It's hard to give you this
It is a shell I'll miss

but at a later time
| knew he'd spend a dime

to buy it back once more
and donate to my store

He had many more than one
of many shells under the sun

He never travelled far away
at home he chose to stay

and buy a shell or four
and give it up once more.

Darwin G. Alder 2/2000

Dr. John McHenry was a kind considerate man and will will miss him
very much.

12

Dr. John Donated:
Harpidae
Conidae
Ranellidae
Cassidae
Epitoniidae
Olividae
Muricidae
Veneridae
Naticidae
Olividae
Fasciolariidae
Mitridae
Muricidae
Volutidae
Strombidae
Neritidae

Together
they
circled
the
globe

HOUSTON CONCHOLOGY SOCIETY, INC.

President:

Program Vice President:

Field Trip Vice-President:

Treasurer.

Recording Secretary:

Corresponding Secretary:

Sandy Clark
Lucille Green

Dave & Nancy Barziza

Immediate Past President:
Co-Editor, Texas Conchologist
Co-Editor, Texas Conchologist

1999-2000

Cheryl Hood

Nancy Mustachio
Frank & Tina Petway
Angela Doucette
Carol Andrews

Cathy Betley

Directors: ©

Barbara Hudson
Joyce Martin
Rachel Mendez &
John Zelko

Constance E. Boone
Dr. John Wise
Darwin G. Alder

Honorary Life Members

Dr. Helmer Odé

, 2000
TEXAS CONCHOLOGIST Vol. XXXVI, No. 1, FEBRUARY

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