Very saddened to hear this news. Dr. LoiselIe's contribution to the hobby simply can't be overstated. He was a tremendous man.
I can't claim to have been a friend, colleague or even a frequent attender of his lectures or presentations, but I would like to share my brief exposure to this larger-than-life legend of a scholar/hobbyist. Back in the 1970's, I was a high school senior working at my first job in a local Southern California fish store. One day a large framed, dark-haired, relatively young gentleman came into the shop to browse our stock and purchase some live food. I stayed close in case he decided to make a fish purchase or needed some help. He immediately, and very authoritatively, began to challenge/correct the labeling of several of our cichlid species. He wasn't rude or obnoxious about it, just explained why the species name wasn't correct and expounded on the salient characteristics that verified the identification. He bought a portion of live brine shrimp, which in those days was netted out of our large shrimp barrels and measured out in a one ounce medical cup and emptied into a bag of salt water and sold for $0.45, and left the store. When the boss came back later, I described the fellow and said that he had taken exception to some of our cichlid identification. The boss said, "That was Paul Loiselle, he is working a degree at U.S.C. and he really knows his stuff, especially African cichlids. We'll go with his identification and relabel the fish". After that he came in from time to time, always bought live food, brine shrimp or tubifex, and always made a tour of the shop to see what we had. I could have listened to him talk fish all day long as he had done collecting and study in several countries, but he always seemed to be rather in a hurry. I'm sure he kept a busy schedule as even back then he was contributing to scholarly journals and magazines. I truly respect the man and consider myself fortunate that our paths crossed in life, however briefly.
