Our beloved Gregory (Greg) Gordon Dimijian, MD – scientist, doctor, naturalist, and world explorer died March 15, 2017 in Dallas, Texas after a brief illness. He was born on February 5, 1935, in Birmingham, Alabama, and was raised there. As a youngster he almost became a concert pianist and his love of music continued throughout his life. By age 8 he had a camera, and subsequently took >200,000 photographs. He had an eye for composition and captured nature’s images like no other.
Greg graduated from Davidson College in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and chemistry and from Cornell University Medical College in 1961. He did a rotating internship at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington followed by 2 years in the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Mary-land. He then did a residency in psychiatry, spending 2 years at the University of Washington in Seattle and 1 year at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas.
He began private practice of psychiatry in Dallas, Texas, retiring from that practice in 1993 followed by his role as Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas South-western Medical School in Dallas until his death. During the summer after his first year in medical school, Greg became a national park ranger at Glacier National Park, and that experience stimulated his interest in animal behavior, which became a lifelong passion. He worked with researchers and field biologists around the world to understand and photograph the earth’s natural heritage.
To share that knowledge, in 1996, he and his wife, Mary Beth, published AnimalWatch: Behavior, Biology, and Beauty and in 2013 published For the Love of Wild Places: Finding Adventure and Beauty in Nature, both of which are collections of some of his best photographs taken on 70 or so jaunts with family to photograph wildlife around the world. Greg’s photographs also have appeared in The New York Times, Time, Natural History, National Geographic, and Nature as well as in other books and the Internet.
Greg is survived by his wife of 45 years, Mary Beth (Haubert) Dimijian, a son David Gordon Dimijian and his wife Ellen and two grandchildren, Daniel and Olivia Dimijian, a daughter Karen Elizabeth Banks, as well as his family by marriage: Shari Haubert, Joan and Scott Holt, Rick and Judy Haubert, Cecilia Riley and Mike Gray, Cynthia Walker, Nancy Haubert and Ken Loar. We will all cherish his love of nature and travel that he shared with us. A polymath, Greg made our world a more wondrous place. He is lovingly remembered by his family and numerous friends for his energy, kindness, intellect, curiosity, and humor. His legacy continues in the images, books, and other gifts he has given to us all.