THE ORIGINS OF THE RECONSTITUTED SOCIETY

In June 1988, Pietsch and Markle met in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. They discussed the desirability of some kind of annual meeting between ichthyologists at Oregon State University and those at the University of Washington.⁶ Later in the year, Pietsch corresponded with Markle and one of Markleís students, Phillip Michael Harris (1964-), about instigating an annual meeting between ichthyologists of the two universities. On 8 November 1988, Harris wrote Pietsch about "our as yet unnamed organization" and offered several possible names and acronyms for the new group. Harris suggested that the first order of business be a meeting of the two contingents from Oregon and Washington.⁷ Pietsch responded to Harris on 21 November 1988 confirming his interest in such a new association of Northwest ichthyologists. In this letter, Pietsch suggested that "we revive the Gilbert Fisheries Society." He wrote that "I realize that our purpose will be somewhat different, to promote basic ichthyological research in systematics, ecology, etc., but Gilbert was actually more of an ichthyologist in our sense of the word than a fisheries biologist." Pietsch then noted that Gilbert was the most important single ichthyologist of the Pacific Northwest for his contributions to our knowledge of the fish fauna of the region, "having described no less than 147 valid species (202 if you want to give primary credit to him, and we probably should, for 45 descriptions published by Jordan and Gilbert)." ⁸

Pietsch suggested to Harris that an initial meeting in Seattle be held on Friday, 10 February 1989, and proposed an agenda. The agenda was to include a formal reading of the charter and bylaws of the Society; the nomination, election, and inauguration of officers; a Distinguished Scientist Lecture; and a formal contributed paper session. After the business and scientific meetings it was proposed to retreat to a local pub for liquid refreshments and a "Presidential Address." In a footnote to this letter Pietsch noted that "The re-founding of the Society will make for a significant addition to our curricula vitae; we could all put a "FGS" behind our name: Fellow of the Gilbert Society!" ^{9, 10}

Pietsch developed a Charter and a set of Bye-Laws for the Gilbert Ichthyological Society (App. 1). ¹¹ He further appointed Jean Richard Dunn (1934-) President of the new Society and Phillip Harris as Secretary-Treasurer.¹² The charter provided for four classes of elected membership: Fellows; Distinguished Members (not to exceed six); Foreign Members (defined as anyone whose permanent professional address was outside the States of Oregon or Washington), and Associate Members (defined as undergraduate students and "significant others.")