David Beers Quinn and the Society for the History of Discoveries
Professor Sanford Bederman
It is an honor to represent the Society for the History of Discoveries at this important memorial tribute to David Quinn. Because he could not attend, I am doubly pleased to have been asked to read Norman Thrower’s tribute to David Beers Quinn.
As you may know, David Quinn was the initial recipient of our society’s first honor. Founded in 1960, the leadership of the Society for the History of Discoveries determined in 2000 that the Society was mature enough for us to begin to honor our distinguished members. We have many such people in our society, but as we say in the United States, it was a ‘no brainer’ when we selected David Quinn, clearly the most distinguished of our members, to be our first ‘Fellow of the Society of the History of Discoveries’. We are especially pleased that the honor was presented to him before he died. The formal citation for Professor Quinn was written by H.G. Jones, who is here today, and it can be read on our society’s website, www.sochistdisc.org.
Since that time, the society has named two other ‘Fellows’ - John Parker (former curator of the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota), and Norman J. W. Thrower, who in addition to being Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, is a North American Representative of the Hakluyt Society. I had the honor of writing Norman Thrower’s citation, so it is with delight that I can substitute for him here in London. 
