ABOVE: Trixie Gardner (left) and Allen Gardner (right) interact with Washoe.
COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO
Ethologist Robert Allen Gardner, who gained fame in the late 1960s for his work with a chimpanzee named Washoe, died on August 20 at the Reno ranch where much of his research was conducted. He and his wife were best known for teaching sign language to chimpanzees. He was 91.
Gardner was born February 21, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York. An obituary from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) states that his parents worked for a bootlegger during prohibition. As a baby, his mom and dad would bring him on deliveries, as a nice, young family out together was not likely to arouse suspicion. According to the obit, Gardner delighted in telling the story of his early life of crime to friends.
In 1950, Gardner graduated with a degree in linguistics from New ...
