He then worked at the Smithsonian Institution before moving to Harvard University, where he was the curator of fishes at the Museum of Comparative Zoology and a professor of biology.
While studying for his post-graduate degrees, he joined a group of ichthyology and herpetology students who were being taught by George S. Myers in the university's Natural History Museum.
After the Army, he returned to the BCF at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., replacing Isaac Ginsburg as a fish taxonomist.
He continued to be active, interested in oenology, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are grown on the 1,300 acres (530 ha) ranch.
Through the Mead Foundation, he supported an international conference on the systematics of the fishes belonging to the Order Gadiformes.
3, Collection Building in Ichthyology and Herpetology by Pietsch and William D. Anderson Jr..[3] Mead was married and divorced three times and had three daughters and two sons.