Herbert Richard Axelrod
| Herbert R. Axelrod | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 7, 1927 Bayonne, New Jersey |
| Died | May 15, 2017 (aged 89) Switzerland |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | Ph.D. |
| Alma mater | New York University |
| Occupation | tropical fish expert, publisher of pet books, musical instrument collector, and entrepreneur |
Herbert Richard Axelrod (June 7, 1927 – May 15, 2017) was a tropical fish expert, and formerly a publisher of pet books and an entrepreneur. In 2005 he was sentenced in U.S. court to 18 months in prison for tax fraud.
Axelrod was born to a Jewish family in New Jersey, the son of immigrant parents from Russia. His father was a mathematics and violin teacher, and his mother was a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy.
While serving in an Army MASH unit in Korea, he wrote his book The Handbook of Tropical Aquarium Fishes, which eventually sold more than one million copies. After returning from Korea, Axelrod earned a Ph.D. in biostatistics at New York University and started the magazine Tropical Fish Hobbyist. He wrote many other books on tropical fish and founded a publishing firm, TFH Publications (named for the magazine) that became the largest publisher of pet books in the world. TFH Publications was headquartered first in Jersey City, New Jersey, then in Neptune, New Jersey.
In 1956, Leonard P. Schultz described the cardinal tetra, a popular aquarium fish, which had been found by Harald Sioli in Brazil in 1953, and gave it its scientific name, Paracheirodon axelrodi, which honors Axelrod.
In 1989, Axelrod donated his collection of fossil fish to the University of Guelph, which the university says is one of the largest donations by an individual to a Canadian university. The Axelrod Institute of Ichthyology at that university was named for him. The University of Guelph also named a lecture hall after him, the Axelrod Building, but in 2010 renamed the Alexander Building, after Lincoln Alexander.
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