FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Birding Memories of Howard Langridge

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Howard P. Langridge, who began birding at Elizabethton 50 years ago, passed 
away Sunday, November 14, following a brief illness and hospitalization from a 
stroke. He was in his early 80s.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Mable Sharp Langridge, who passed away at 
age 77, Oct. 15, 1999.

Funeral arrangements are not available at this hour but a family member has 
said a simple service is expected to be conducted Saturday. He is survived by 
three daughters and a son. He lived in a simple cabin home he built near the 
Elizabethton airport and owned most of his life. A daughter and son-in-law, 
Jane and Jim Farmer, live nextdoor.

His contributions to birding in the region and to birding in Florida, was 
major. He lived at Elizabethton in recent years. He was a member of the Lee and 
Lois Herndon Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society.

He will long be remembered for having been one of the foremost birders in 
Florida. He organized many Christmas counts in that state. For ten years he 
wrote a birding reports on Florida birds for "American Birds." For 8 years he 
was associate editor for the "Florida Field Naturalist."

He was famous for leading birding tours to the Dry Tortugas off the Florida 
coast and for Wings, the world famous birding tours.

He frequently birded the Rio Grande area of southern Texas and the Alaskan 
island of Attu. 

He is remembered for having found the second U.S. sighting of a Brown-headed 
Martin. 

In 1990 Howard and Brian Cross, and others discovered several rare birds blown 
into Watauga Lake in Northeast Tennessee by Hurricane Hugo. The Royal Tern and 
Lesser Black-backed Gull were first Tennessee records.

At South Holston Lake, October 15-19, 1990, he was the first to "pick up" that 
a white heron seen by himself, Rick Knight and Brian Cross was a Great White 
Heron (white morph of the Great Blue Heron mainly known from Florida at that 
time). It was the first occurrence of this morph in Tennessee and second in 
Virginia.   The Great White Heron had, at that time, started showing up in more 
northern areas and inland along the Atlantic coast.

One Langridge's most recent accomplishments was when he wrote birding history 
in the five-county Northeast Tennessee area with the tally of 237 species in 
the year 2000. It broke a 12-year-record of 231 species found by Brian Cross in 
1989. Several attempts to break the old record had come up short.

"He's probably the only birder I know that would have driven over the mountain 
to Shady Valley near midnight in a major snowstorm to try for a Long-eared Owl 
found at John Shumate's home. But, he got that owl, and I didn't," said Bryan 
Stevens, former president of the Herndon Chapter, editor of the chapter 
newsletter and close birding companion of Lanagridge.

"I never really got anything like a favorite bird or a favorite birding 
location out of him, but he liked the Dry Tortugas, Alaska, Texas and Florida. 
Closer to his home in Tennessee, I know he liked to head to Musick's 
Campground, Wilbur Lake and Shady Valley.

"Howard tended to sweep people up into challenges. When Howard broke the record 
in 2000 with 237 birds seen in Carter, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi and 
Washington, I came in second with 220 birds. I like to tell people that I got 
pulled along in his wake. If not for that surge of momentum that he generated, 
I would never have accomplished my own feat. It was a fun year, and one that I 
doubt I will ever come close to matching."

"He will be very much missed. My own feeling of personal loss is just almost 
too much for me to contemplate right now," Stevens said just hours after having 
learned of Langridge's death.

Langridge left his native Iowa at the age of 18 and worked with the U.S. Postal 
Service in Washington D.C. He spent three years in the U.S. Navy during World 
War II and then came to Northeast Tennessee to attend East Tennessee State 
University. He earned a B.S. and M.A. degree in English. He taught school in 
Carter County, TN and then most of his career at Lantania, FL where he retired 
in 1981.

In February 1995 we learned he that the Langridges had decided to discontinue 
spending summers at his cabin home near Elizabethton. He had been spending 
summers there for more than 20 years. He stayed in Florida for a few years 
before moving back permanently to his cabin in Elizabethton.

He lived alone for several years and was always in good health, playing tennis 
two or three times a week and chopping his own firewood right up to the time of 
his death. 

On a personal note, I remember spending time with him birding in Florida in 
1967 and his finding me many wonderful life birds. John Shumate and I birded 
with him at Musick's Campground and saw the Sooty Tern on a beautiful, sunny, 
day September 9, 2004. At that time three of us talked about old times. I asked 
Howard then if he would be willing to sit down and let me tape record a few 
hours of his memories and the great history and friendship we have shared. He 
agreed and said he would be more than happy to do that.

Howard walked to his car and left. I never saw him again and will always mourn 
his loss and our loss. And I will never forgive myself for not going quickly to 
get the recording made. 

Stevens believes Langridge's last birding activity with the Herndon TOS Chapter 
was October 30 when they held the last of the chapter's October Saturday bird 
walks at Sycamore Shoals State Park, Elizabethton.  With him were birding 
friends  
Dianne Draper, Howard Langridge, Reece Jamerson, David Thometz 
and Stevens.

A legend has passed and some of history passed with him.

Let's go birding while we can....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN


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