Philip Joe Regal

Dr. Philip Joe Regal (Felipe Jose Regalado), born December 2nd 1939 in Hollywood, California, passed away peacefully on August 15th 2025 after a year and a half struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was cared for by his spouse of 35 years in their home in Toronto, Ontario until the day before he died on the palliative ward of Toronto Grace hospital. He was 85 years old.

Professor Regal completed his undergraduate degree at San Diego State University (1962), his PhD at the University of California Los Angeles (1968), and post-doctoral training at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1968-1970). He spent his academic career (1970-2007) at the University of Minnesota in the Bell Museum of Natural History and the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior.

As a young scientist, Philip was a bonafide field biologist. He roamed the various biomes of the North American West collecting specimens and observing the natural world. Hostile governments, tropical fevers, armed inebriated vaqueros playing a game of high-stakes poker the next table over, Philip was there because that’s where the animals he was studying were located. It was during this interval that Philip published A New Plethodontid Salamander from Oaxaca Mexico in which he introduced the world to a previously unidentified species of salamander Pseudoeurycea juarezi.

In the middle portion of his career, Professor Regal became a scientific advisor and leader in the world wide discussion of the safety of genetically modified organisms. His writings summarized the key concepts and available scientific frameworks to take on this problem. The meetings he helped organize brought together key figures in science, industry, religion, government, and social activism, to try to find a way forward. The outcome of this work is still being assessed, indeed is still being realized.

During this portion of his career, Dr. Regal authored The Anatomy of Judgment, a historical and cross-cultural analysis of the flawed nature of human perception, thinking, and decision making, and possible strategies to mitigate the impact of these flaws on society. He also joined the voices calling for properly reporting on the politically fraught but scientifically important sexual behaviors of the Bonobo chimp, one of humanity’s closest relatives.

During his retirement, Philip authored Renaissance Eroticism at the Dawn which explored the cultural changes in the West that fostered the appearance of the first freestanding nude sculpture since antiquity, Donatello’s David. At the time of his passing, he was writing a text probing Thomas Malthus’ sensibilities regarding the impact of pronatalist ideologies on population.

Been to a zoo where the reptiles are kept in enclosures with opportunities to control their body temperature rather than in a glass cage with a heat lamp continuously shining on them? Seen a video where the sexual behavior of Bonobo chimps is approached with honesty and curiosity? Eaten a piece of food labeled non-GMO? You’ve been impacted by Philip.

Dr. Regal was, at his core, an adventurer. Fueled by endless curiosity, his explorations enriched the lives of all who took the time to listen. He was a renaissance man, and an American Original in the most uplifting sense of that phrase.

Philip is survived by his spouse Bob, sister Linda, members of his extended family, and friends and colleagues from around the world. His gentle demeanor, brilliant mind, boundless curiosity, engaging storytelling, playful spirit, and big loving heart will be deeply missed.