30-Year Biology Teacher Is Still Fascinated by ‘Why’

While other kids collected baseball cards and bottle caps, Bayard H. Brattstrom fancied lizards, snakes and frogs.

“When I went to school I would always have a snake in my pocket,” he said.

No, he hasn’t changed much as an adult.

“I’m still a little kid,” said the 30-year Cal State Fullerton biology teacher who also likes to write poetry and is authoring a “quick and easy” chicken cookbook. “I never got my fill of lizards, snakes or any of that stuff.”

His college biology laboratory is filled with them.

During his youth, Brattstrom lived across the street from the Rosewald Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where he spent much of his time.

“I remember they had all this stuff from around the world and it spurred my curiosity,” he said. “They had a huge heart you could walk through and hear it thump.”

After moving to California, Brattstrom said, he regularly walked the Hollywood Hills to collect snakes. “My folks let me keep them at home as long as they were in cages,” he said.

But after concentrating his earlier academic and personal life on his animals and science, Brattstrom took a different turn in the 1970s and decided to talk about the ills of the world.

For four years he gave talks to luncheon, dinner and PTA crowds in Orange County and elsewhere, appealing to them to pay attention to overpopulation, civil rights, the women’s movement, pollution and the dangers of pesticides.

“We were trying to make people aware of problems in the world and with the ecology,” said Brattstrom, 60, who lives in Yorba Linda. “I think we succeeded.”

After those four years he pursued other interests such as writing, storytelling, photography and reading.

“I’ve promised myself I would read every book in the world before I die,” he said. “Last summer I read 66 books.”

For him it is a matter of curiosity.

“I’m trying to understand everything. Why is the world the way it is? How does it work?” he said.

As a photographer, Brattstrom mostly takes picture of the things that got him interested early on.

“I take pictures of lizards and frogs, and many of them end up in textbooks, and that’s fun,” he said. “Anybody can take a picture of a lion,” but it’s tougher to capture attention with a portrait of something people would otherwise avoid.

In his more immediate project, Brattstrom is scouring Orange County and other parts of California to determine how the Orange-throated whiptail lizard and the San Diego horned lizard are surviving encroaching development.

The study will help decide whether the two lizards should be put on the endangered species list. He said the best way to find out is to check the past and current distribution of the lizards.

“And the best way to save a species is to save its habitat,” he said.

The two-year study is financed by an $85,000 grant from the state Department of Fish and Game.

While tracking lizard habitats, Brattstrom, a graduate of San Diego State University and UCLA with master’s and doctorate degrees, is also writing a series of books.

One is called “How to Study Rhinoceros,” a how-to science book “with a lot of funny jokes,” he said. Other books in that tongue-in-cheek vein are “How Not to Be a Student “ and “How Not to Be an Administrator.”

Despite his hectic schedule, “I’m living a happy life,” he said. “I’ve never done anything I didn’t like.”

And what keeps him going? “I’m always in a state of meditation,” he answered, calmly.

Ginni and Newt Withers of Fountain Valley and Wayne Stanfield of Tustin have been inducted into the Interstate Batteries Great American Race Hall of Fame. All three will compete in the New York City-to-Disneyland antique car race in June.

Ginni drove a 1907 Thomas Flyer and a 1934 Ford in her two earlier races. Depression-era desperadoes Bonnie and Clyde were slain in the Ford.

“That was exciting, considering the background of the car,” she said.

Ginni will drive a 1912 Oldsmobile in this year’s race.

Her husband will pilot a 1934 Packard, and Stanfield will chauffeur a 1916 Mitchell.