Clyde Edgar Keeler (April 11, 1900 – April 22, 1994) was a medical geneticist who is noted for his work on laboratory mice and the genetics of vision. His work was instrumental in the understanding of retinitis pigmentosa. He also seems to have published the first scientific paper on non-rod non-cone visual sensation.

Clyde Edgar Keeler
Born(1900-04-11)April 11, 1900
Marion, Ohio, US
DiedApril 22, 1994(1994-04-22) (aged 94)
Milledgeville, Georgia, US
Resting placeMemory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville, Georgia
EducationSc. D.
Alma materHarvard University
Known forStudies of the Laboratory mouse, Visual System, and the Kuna people
SpouseDr. Johanna Abel
ChildrenIrmgard (Irma) Keeler Howard
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship
Scientific career
FieldsGenetics, Medicine, Anthropology
InstitutionsHarvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Edgewood School in Connecticut, Woman's College in North Carolina, Wesleyan College, Georgia State College for Women, Central State Hospital (Milledgeville, Georgia)
ThesisRodless retinae: studies on an ophthalmic mutation in the house mouse. (1926)

Short biographies may be found at the web site of Georgia College,[1] which keeps the Clyde E. Keeler collection, and at the Guggenheim Foundation,[2] where he was made a Fellow in 1938. His daughter, Irmgard Keeler Howard, wrote a three-page obituary for The Journal of Heredity[3] and he self-published an autobiography, The Gene Hunter.[4]

If I went into medicine, I might save the lives of two hundred or more persons, but if I went into research and was fortunate enough to make a biomedical discovery of lasting value, I would affect the knowledge of many physicians and through them I might help to save the lives of thousands as yet unborn. So I went into my career with my eyes open.

— Clyde E. Keeler, The Gene Hunter

References

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  1. ^ "Clyde E. Keeler Collection: Biographical Note". Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  2. ^ "Clyde E. Keeler". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  3. ^ Keeler Howard, Irmgard (1995). "In Memoriam: Clyde Edgar Keeler (1900-1994): Geneticist, Artist, Cultural Historian". The Journal of Heredity. 86 (6). doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a111630.
  4. ^ Keeler, Clyde E. (1984). The Gene Hunter: Excerpts from a life in bio-science. Philip Giles. The manuscript is in the Keeler Collection.