Fritz Isidore van Emden

[3] Fritz van Emden later recalled to his son Helmut that seeing insects attacking his father's stock had sparked his interest in Entomology.

[5] Van Emden became a Carabidae specialist and from 1927 worked at the Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde und Völkerkunde in Dresden,[4] where he was a mentor to Willi Hennig.

[3] In 1936 Van Emden emigrated with his wife and two young sons to England where he was supported by a grant from The Society for the Protection of Science and Learning[4] and worked for the Imperial Institute of Entomology, based at the British Museum.

[9] Van Emden died of a brain tumour on 2 September 1958 shortly before he was due to retire,[3] with his research project of a monograph on British beetle larvae unfinished.

His specimens and paperwork were passed on to the Natural History Museum, London by Helmut Fritz van Emden (who himself became a notable entomologist) with the hope that his father's work could be continued.