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12
R OUNDABOUT TO STEINHART AQUARIUM
O
NE DAY IN 1974,
out of the blue, I got a phone call at home from
Dr. John McCosker, who had been appointed director of Steinhart
Aquarium after the unexpected death of Earl Herald. Newly on the
job, McCosker needed help completing the Fish Roundabout, a ma-
jor exhibit that had been started shortly before Herald's death. Would
I come on board to help see this project to completion, McCosker asked.
Ironically, after I left Steinhart to go to Sea World, Earl Herald had
learned to scuba dive. Discovering that he loved it, he took up under-
water photography. In spite of a history of heart problems, and against
his doctor's orders, he went scuba diving at Cabo San Lucas with Je¤rey
Meyer (later chairman of the board of trustees of the Academy). Near
the end of the dive Herald apparently stopped breathing, and he was
discovered lying motionless on the bottom. Back at the boat, all at-
tempts to revive him failed. An autopsy done at Cabo San Lucas gave
a likely diagnosis of heart failure.
Earl Herald had visited several of the many aquariums in Japan and
was especially intrigued by a donut-shaped tank at Shima Marine-
land that completely surrounds the viewers. Thus inspired, Herald and
his architects designed—and the GHC Meyer Family Foundation
financed—a new exhibit at Steinhart to be called the Fish Roundabout
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