Edward (Ed) Brinton, 86, died in January 2010. Ed was born in January 1924 into the Quaker community of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. His parents, Howard and Anna Brinton were prominent Quaker leaders and academics. His family traveled widely throughout his childhood, sometimes together and sometimes apart. His early life in an active Quaker family likely contributed to his love of adventure and his penchant for travel, embracing the people and culture wherever he went.
In 1937, the family settled at Pendle Hill, the Quaker study center outside of Philadelphia where his parents served as directors. Ed graduated from the Quaker boarding school Westtown in 1941 and later with a biology degree from Haverford College. His college years were interrupted by World War II, during which he served as a conscientious objector doing work for the forest service in Tennessee and later as an attendant in a mental hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia. Following the end of the war, he traveled to California but returned east to finish his undergraduate degree. He did his Masters at Bryn Mawr College. In 1948, he met and married his wife, Desiree (Kid) Ward, who was then a student at Pendle Hill. In 1950, Ed and Kid moved west to La Jolla, California where Ed was a graduate student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He earned a PhD in 1957 and began a long lasting career as a research biologist. With his wife, Kid, they raised four children: Joanna, Nick, David, and Eric. He was widowed in 1976.
Ed was highly regarded in the international scientific community. Ed’s dissertation, The Distribution of Pacific Euphausiids, became an important publication. Euphausiids are the small shrimp-like crustaceans known as krill that animals such as baleen whales, fish, and birds feed upon. Ed’s work contributed to our understanding of the biology of the open ocean. Although his research was primarily related to the taxonomy and ecology of krill throughout the Pacific Ocean, colleagues praise his massive contributions to key aspects of biological oceanography. His research detailed the significant biogeographical provinces of the Pacific Ocean and the large-scale patterns of open-ocean diversity, integrating the roles of physical oceanography and ocean circulation. He also led studies describing how climatic variations led to corresponding variations in the marine ecosystems of the California Current.
His work took him on extensive voyages at sea. He sent home fascinating letters about the customs and cultures of the lands that he visited. He and his family traveled to and lived in places like England, Thailand, and India. While abroad and between travels, the family had many wonderful and sometimes alarming family adventures. He lived in the moment, but things usually worked out. Ed was someone with a real respect and active concern for all people and cultures. A colleague remembered him as one without a “moment of doubt to share crowded compartments reserved for only blacks or to enter townships to participate in religious service in apartheid South Africa, though both were forbidden for whites.”
He was a founding member of La Jolla Monthly Meeting and remained a member of this Meeting for more than 50 years. He was quiet and soft-spoken, smiling easily. Though he traveled and lived in other parts of the world, he was an active participant in Meeting who contributed as he could. He graciously opened his home to F/friends, sometimes for extended periods. His adventures were merely mentioned in passing and, perhaps, if pressed he would share photos. We will greatly miss this generous, deep, and good-hearted man.
Ed’s survivors include his sisters Catharine and Joan and his children Joanna, Nick, David, and Eric. He was grandfather to Elena, Terry, Gwen, Rosie, Liam, and Kellen.