Some information is given on the academic work and collecting activities of Roy Albert Crowson (1914-1999). This is mainly with reference to his tenure in the University of Glasgow and to the preserved specimens that were created or utilised by him. A university position allowed Crowson (referred to below as RAC) to benefit from research leave and obtain grants to travel internationally and conduct fieldwork in different zoogeographical regions. The only major area he did not visit was South America. He also sampled extensively in the UK, but particularly in Scotland usually accompanied by his wife Elizabeth ("Betty") Crowson (1928-2006), hereinafter referred to as EAC (Dobson, 2008). The work by RAC on Tetratomidae described in Hancock Robinson (2021) provides a small paradigm for his life's work on the ecology and phylogeny of Coleoptera. Embracing both adults and larvae, it illustrates his methodology and the result of a productive husband and wife collaboration. Many biographical details of RAC are given elsewhere (e.g., Crowson, 1995; Dobson, 2000; Cohen, 2000; Johnson, 2001) but further observations are added here. These are derived in part from manuscript notes on file in Glasgow.
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