Preliminary Inventory of the Herbert L. Stahnke Papers

Biologist and scorpion expert Herbert Ludwig George Stahnke was born to Albert and Margaretha (Stille) Stahnke in Chicago, Illinois on June 10, 1902. He earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Chicago (1928), his Masters from the University of Arizona (1935), and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University (1939). Stahnke married Lydia Leona Stille (1904-1993) in Glenwood, Iowa on June 10, 1929 and the couple had three children, Herbert LeRoy (1930-1930), Jo Anne Yvonne (Stahnke) Martin (1932-), and Jerry LeRoy (1935-). He moved his family to Arizona in 1928, where he worked as the Head of Mesa High School's science department until 1940. Stahnke joined Arizona State University as the Head of the Division of Biological Sciences in 1941 and founded the Poisonous Animals Research Laboratory to facilitate his research in 1944.

Stahnke's interest in scorpions began while he was searching for a topic for his doctoral dissertation and read a newspaper article about a 5-year-old boy who had died of a scorpion sting. At the time, nothing could be done to help a child who had been stung. Stahnke's research on scorpions and their venom produced two significant advances. First, he discovered that the morphine that medical professionals administered to relieve the pain from a scorpion sting increased the toxicity of the scorpion's venom between three and seven times depending on the derivative used. Thus, the treatment for pain was causing death. Second, Stahnke developed a scorpion antivenin, credited with saving hundreds of lives, in 1948. The Laboratory produced the antivenin and distributed it to Arizona's medical professionals using 95 depots around the state. Between 1954 and 1957, Stahnke also hosted Desert Denizens on KPHO-TV. When he retired upon reaching mandatory retirement age in 1972, he was widely acknowledged as the leading expert in his field. Herbert Stahnke died in Tempe on February 24, 1990.