William Richard Garstka, 75, died on Sunday, December 17, 2023, after battling a long illness. He was born on May 5, 1948, in Norwich, New London, Connecticut.
He is the son of William S. and Jennie Wanagel Garstka. William graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1970, shortly after marrying his wife, Katharine. He worked as a laboratory technician in San Diego and at the University of Arizona in Tucson for several years, and then earned a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Harvard University. His thesis involved fieldwork in Canada and Mexico, where he studied the biology and reproduction of garter snakes and king snakes. He joined the faculty of the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1982, retiring as a tenured full professor in 2006. Dr. Garstka engaged in research, publishing, and teaching classes in various aspects of vertebrate biology, zoology, evolution, and paleontology. During the summers he especially enjoyed bringing students to his dinosaur fossil digs in North Dakota, where participants learned to identify, recover, and prepare fossils for study and display.
Dr. Garstka leaves behind his wife, his sister, Roberta Stoughton of Erie, Pennsylvania; and two nieces.
Berryhill Funeral Home assisted the family.
