Edmund Murton Walker

Edmund Murton Walker, born on October fifth, eighteen seventy-seven, in Windsor, Ontario, was a distinguished Canadian entomologist and university educator. He was the second child and eldest son of Sir Byron Edmund Walker and Mary Alexander. His fascination with insects began in childhood, inspired by the renowned entomologist William Saunders. After pursuing natural sciences at the University of Toronto, Walker briefly studied medicine but soon shifted his focus to zoology, studying under Ramsay Wright and later delving into invertebrate biology at the University of Berlin.

In nineteen hundred six, Walker returned to the University of Toronto as a lecturer in zoology, eventually becoming the head of the department in nineteen thirty-four. His career was marked by significant contributions to entomology, including the description of the genus Grylloblatta in nineteen fourteen, which he initially classified within the Orthoptera. This genus was later recognized as a separate order, Grylloblattodea, highlighting Walker's keen insight into insect classification.

Walker’s research extended beyond Grylloblatta; he also studied the fly Wohlfahrtia vigil and its role in human cutaneous myiasis. A founding member of the Toronto Field Naturalists' Club, he was not only an entomologist but also an avid botanist and amateur painter. In nineteen fourteen, he established the invertebrate collection at the Royal Ontario Museum, where he served in various capacities, including Assistant Director from nineteen eighteen to nineteen thirty-one and Honorary Director from nineteen thirty-one until nineteen sixty-nine.

His accolades included the Royal Society of Canada's Flavelle medal in nineteen sixty and an honorary degree from Carleton University. Walker published the three-volume work 'Odonata of Canada and Alaska,' regarded as a definitive resource on the subject, and served as editor of The Canadian Entomologist from nineteen ten to nineteen twenty. He passed away in Toronto in nineteen sixty-nine, shortly after the death of his second wife, Norma Ford Walker, a geneticist whom he married in nineteen forty-three.