Dr. Gardiner E. Gregory (1917-2005) for whom the Hicksville Gregory Museum is named, was nothing less then a Renaissance Man and left an indelible mark upon Hicksville and the surrounding communities.
A native of Maine, Dr. Gregory lived in Hicksville with his wife, the late Anne Church, from the late 1950's until his retirement in 1978. Although an educator by profession - serving for many years as the Curriculum Materials Director for the Hicksville School District - it was as a mineralogist, photographer, lecturer, historian, and entomologist that he's best remembered not only by the various societies of rock hounds and butterfly collectors and historical preservationists of which he was a member, but by generations of local residents who fondly recall elementary school field trips to his home on Cottage Blvd. in Hicksville wherein the original Gregory Museum resided.
Others will remember the rock and insect-collecting expeditions he organized amongst local youth and old alike, the many Saturniidae cocoons and caterpillars he supplied from his own stock from Hicksville science classrooms to improve the quality of science education. (I know a number of people who went on to become professional geologists, biologists, and earth science teachers as a result of his influence).
Equally famous throughout our area was his inexhaustible passion for photographing scientific specimens; skills in this capacity suggested, in both subject and style, the black-and-white entomological photography of Edwin Way Teale and he was one of the first nonprofessional entomologists to realize that quality photography could do far more justice to insect larvae than pickled specimens with respect to providing the general public and amateur collector with a guide for identification (although his preserved larvae specimens, displayed at the Hicksville Gregory Museum today, show exceptional technique on his part).
In the early 1970's, he and Anne, herself a brilliant organizer, spear-headed the movement to save Hicksville's historic 1895 Heitz Place Courthouse, gathering enthusiastic local naturalists, historians, preservationists, businesspeople, and civic leaders to create a science and history museum for the future education of Hicksville's children and the public in general. Today the Hicksville Gregory Museum, still a popular field trip site for schools from all over the Long Island/New York City area, boasts the largest mineralogical collection on Long Island, a growing assemblage of fossils and dinosaur relics, and extensive collections of seashells and lepidoptera. (See my "The Gardiner Gregory Lepidoptera Collection" in the Spring 2004 issue of News of the Lepidopterist's Society).
It is equally famous for its exhibits of antique maps, vintage photographs, memorabilia, and artifacts pertaining to Long Island history as well as the history of science and technology. It can be said that the eclectic nature of the Museum is a reflection of the catholic interests of its founder for he was, in many ways, a naturalist in the pattern of the classic Victorian polymath whose greatest role was as a popularizer of the physical and natural sciences - a generalist with an utterly contagious enthusiasm that made natural history fascinating even for those who had no particular interest in the topic. Indeed, that entomological enthusiasm literally spilled into the streets at times.
In 1974, for example, he and museum trustee and noted photographer Ed Bady, rented Hicksville's United Artist's movie house for a well-attended screening of the cultish Hellstrom Chronicle. In he Museum's early years, when the expanding Mid-Island Plaza (now the Broadway Mall) was becoming the de facto center of town, he oversaw natural history exhibits in the mall in which the public was exposed to Riker Mounts overflowing with exotic butterflies and moths, display cases filled with showy crystals and rare ores, and fossils of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.
Today an elegantly framed portrait of Dr. Gregory, painted by a talented local artist named Olga Hoebel, overlooks the hallway where the Museum's patrons gaze upon row after row of morphos, birdwings, swallowtails, and giant silk moths. Late in 2003, I reorganized this collection to better illustrate the manner in which the study of butterflies and moths exemplifies such general biological concepts as evolution, genetics, taxonomy, defense mechanisms, and geographic distribution. Here, amateur lepidopterists are joined by rock hounds who marvel at the thousands of mineral specimens - including some exceedingly rare varieties collected by Dr. Gregory in the field - all neatly labeled and presented in well-lighted display cases.
Young dinosaur buffs can walk into the Museum any time and see the remains of these fantastic prehistoric creatures right in their own neighborhood. Local history enthusiasts also have Dr. Gregory to thank for the old courthouse building - which is now proudly listed on the National Registry of Historic Places as one of the few surviving rural courthouses north of the Mason/Dixon Line.
Few people pass through this life making a contribution to their community, and to society writ large, that justifies having their name affixed to an institution. It is an extraordinary rarity conferred by the thoughtfulness and gratitude of their fellow citizens. Of course, Dr. Gardiner E. Gregory was no ordinary man.
Want to learn more about the history of Levittown and the surrounding communities? Visit www.levittownhistoricalsociey.org
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