Skinner, Morris F.

Biographical Note

Morris F. Skinner (1903-1989) was a paleontologist who worked for the Frick Laboratory (1927-1968) and the American Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Paleontology (Frick Assistant Curator, 1968-1973). He was born in Springview, Nebraska. He studied at the University of Nebraska, graduating in 1932 with a major in Geology and a minor in Chemistry and Zoology. He married Shirley M. White, later known as Marie Skinner, in 1930, and had two children. From 1928-1932, he was in charge of field parties collecting vertebrate fossils for Childs Frick or the Frick Corporation. From 1933-1968, he was a part of the Frick Corporation, responsible for the geological and locational data of fossil collections. He became Assistant Curator of the Frick Laboratory in 1956, Frick Assistant Curator of the American Museum of Natural History in the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology in 1968, and Associate Curator in 1969. His major researches were on horses, but there were curatorial activities on rhinoceroses, tapirs, peccaries, and horned ruminants. Morris and Shirley Marie Skinner worked together as a duo on expeditions and field studies and she was a Scientific Assistant at the museum. After Morris F. Skinner died in Ainsworth, Nebraska in 1989, his wife, Marie, donated his notebooks to the Vertebrate Paleontology collection.

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