Lee Peters Dies; Funeral Is Today For Ornithologist

Funeral services will be held today for James Lee Petera '12, University Curator of Birds, who died Sunday at Mount Auburn Hospital.

Peters, who lived at Lane End, Cambridge, had been associated with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard since 1912 and has been curator since 1932.

He was president of the American Ornithologists Union from 1943 to 1945 and an elected member of many organizations including the Biological Society of Washington, the American Academy of Sciences, the Cooper Club of California, and the Society of Systematic Zoologists. He was also president of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature which rules on the scientific names of living creatures.

The ornithologist was the author of a seven-volume work entitled "Check List of Birds of the World," and had written 125 papers on natural history.

He is survived by his wife and two sisters.

Peters took part in and led expeditions to Mexico, the West Indies, and Central and South America as zoological collector for the Harvard University Museum.

The funeral will be at 1 p.m. this afternoon at Story Chapel. Mount Auburn Cemetery.