Ray ‘Bones’ Bandar, biologist and skull collector, dies at 90

Ray “Bones” Bandar, a biologist and high school science teacher who kept 6,000 animal skulls in his basement and moose antlers in the bathtub of his San Francisco home, has died at 90.

Bandar died Dec. 23 at home at his request among his bones, said his niece Faylene Bandar. Cause of death was congestive heart failure, she said.

For 60 years Bandar was a volunteer field associate in the department of ornithology and mammalogy at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. He loaned 1,800 specimens from his collection to curate the first “Skulls” exhibition at the academy in 2003. That exhibition was such a hit that it returned for an encore when the building reopened in 2014.