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Some Prigogine's birds. And his actual Death … (1 Viewer)

Björn Bergenholtz

(former alias "Calalp")
Sweden
There seem to be some confusion, in various sources, regarding when and where Mr. Prigogine died, so here´s some little additional info regarding this man …

From what I understand the Scientific name of the following birds commemorate him:
● Congo Bay-owl Phodilus prigoginei SCHOUTEDEN 1952 a k a "Prigogine's Bay Owl "
● Prigogine's Greenbul Chlorocichla prigoginei DEE ROO 1967 a k a "Congo -" or "Butembo Greenbul"
● Itombwe Nightjar Caprimulgus prigoginei LOUETTE 1990 a k a "Prigogine's Nightjar"
● the hard-to-place (species or sub-species); Prigogine's Double-collared Sundbird (Nectarinia/Anthobaphes) Cinnyris (afer/stuhlmanni/ludovicensis) prigoginei MACDONALD 1958 a k a just "Prigogine’s Sunbird "

… as well as some of the Common names of:
● Kabobo Apalis Apalis (chapini/porphyrolaema) kaboboensis PRIGOGINE 1955 a k a "Prigogine’s Apalis"
● Itombwe Alseonax Muscicapa (lendu) itombwensis PRIGOGINE 1957 a k a "Prigogine's Alsonax" or "Prigogine's Flycatcher"
● Kibale Ground-Thrush (Turdus/Geokichla) Zoothera (camaronensis) kibalensis PRIGOGINE 1978 a k a "Kibali Ground-Thrush", "Prigogine's Golden Trush" or "Prigogine's Ground Trush"
● Albertine Owlet Glaucidium (capense) albertinum PRIGOGINE 1983 (Syn. "Taenioglaux albertina") a k a "Prigogine's Owlet "

all commemorate the Russian-born, multi-tasking Belgian naturalist, geologist, mineralogist, but foremost ornithologist, explorer, hunter and collector: Dr. (in Chemistry) Alexandre Prigogine (1913–1991), that collected in Belgian Kongo from 1938 and onwards …

This Alexandre was born in Moscow 12th of April 1913, as Александр (normally transcribed as "Alexander"), but changed to the more French Alexandre (after having moved to Belgium in 1930). He became a Belgian Citizen after 1948. Alexandre Prigogine died on the 7th of May 1991, in Brussels, Belgium.

See Obituary (Attached); In memoriam Alexandre Prigogine (1913–1991) by Michel Louette*. Originally published in 1991 (the same year that Prigogine died) in the Belgian ornithological Journal Le Gerfaut/De Giervalk 81 (1-2): 101-106 and, far later, somewhat shorter (in English translation 2008) Alexandre Prigogine (1913-1991) in The Ibis 134: 89-90. Accessible here.

*the same man who described the Nightjar Caprimulgus prigoginei in 1990, one year before Prigogine's Death.

That’s Prigogine … and these "his" birds!

Anyone think otherwise?

PS. Not to be confused with his much more famous younger brother: Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003), Nobel Prize Laureate 1977, in Chemistry.
 

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Thanks for posting the Prigogine obituary. Might be important when I am writing the Wikipedia article about him.
 
Mrs Prigogine

Sorry to re-open tis old thread, but while once again looking at some of Prigogine's Birds I came across a minor, tiny, tiny addition on ...

Shelly Prigogine, wife of the Russian/Belgian ornithologist Alexandre Prigogine (1913–1991), allegedly commemorated in ...

shellyae as in:
• the subspecies "Drepanorhynchus reichenowi shellyae" PRIGOGINE 1952 (Note: OD* unseen by me) simply trusting and following today's HBW Alive Key entry:
shellyae
Shelly Prigogine (fl. 1952) wife of Belgian naturalist Alexandre Prigogine (subsp. Drepanorhynchus reichenowi).
As ditto mentioned in The Eponym Dictionary of Birds (2014), here.

Apparently she (and they) was still alive in 1986 (here).

That´s it.

Anyone who have seen the OD? Or knows more of her?

Björn
_________________________________________________
*Revue de zoologie et de botanique africaines 46 (pt.3/4): p.414 (Dec., 1952).
 
Nectarinia reichenowi shellyae Prigogine 1952

OD in snippet view: [this], followed by [this]:
Après comparaison de mes spécimens avec les Oiseaux de l'Est Africain, au Musée Royal du Congo belge et au British Museum, je suis arrivé à la conclusion que les Oiseaux du Congo belge appartiennent à une nouvelle race, que je dédie à ma femme.
Nectarinia reichenowi shellyae subsp. nov.
(After comparison of my specimens with the birds of East Africa, at the Musée Royal du Congo belge and at the British Museum, I reached the conclusion that birds from the Belgian Congo belong to a new race, which I dedicate to my wife.
Nectarinia reichenowi shellyae subsp. nov.)

In the last paragraph of Prigogine's obituary in Le Gerfaut (attachment to post #1), he's said to have lost her in 1988.
 
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Thanks, Laurent, you mean that I´ve had her death year all this time!
... et surtout après la perte de sa femme Shelly, en 1988.

(from the Obituary by Louette, in Le Gerfaut/De Giervalk 81)
My only (sad) excuse is that I, at that point, back in 2014, wasn´t looking for her. Sigh.

However: thanks again!
 
And by the way ... here´s another clue on Shelly ...

PRIGOGINE (Alexandre), Chimiste, Ornithologue (Moscou, 12.04.1913 ‒ Bruxelles, 07.05.1991). Fils de Roman et de Wichman, Julie; époux de Kaplan, Shelly.

(from here, p.308)
If of any use?
 
Maybe easier to see what The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claims directly in this thread:
Golden-winged Sunbird ssp. Drepanorhynchus reichenowi shellyae Prigogine, 1952
Madame Shelly Prigogine (DNF) was the wife of the describer, Alexandre Prigogine (q.v.).

But of course her birth seems still not solved. At the moment with above information I see her as Shelly Prigogine née Kaplan (-1988) (if I understood everthing correct).
 
Alexandre Romanovich Prigogine 1913-1991

Also confused about the transliteration of Приго́жин shouldn't it be Prigozhin?
If transliterated according to English/current international rules, yes. Here, the name was Frenchified -- transcribed so as to produce something that would sound like the original if pronounced according to the rules of French.
I also doubt there was a patronymic in his name on his Belgian passport, actually.

I can't find any Shelly Prigogine but suspect she was not Russian - is Shelly a Belgian name?
Did you try Shelly Kaplan ? This was her name as per this.
FWIW: I can't remember having met a Shelly; genuinely French or Dutch words do not start with 'sh'.
 
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Yeap looked for Kaplan - Shelly is apparently a Hebrew given name which makes sense given Alexandre's heritage - not sure how it might be "Frenchified".
 
Shelly is apparently a Hebrew given name which makes sense given Alexandre's heritage - not sure how it might be "Frenchified".

שלי

Hebrew is completely outside of my domain of experience, but I assume this might be made Chelli or Chèli in French if transcribed from scratch. But it's not going to be changed if it already has an established spelling in the Latin alphabet.

(It seems to have been written Schelli in German ?)
 
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