I live just outside Vancouver, British Columbia and next year we have the Winter Olympics.
One of the animal toys for the event is the Spirit Bear otherwise known as the Kermode Bear. This Bear was discovered and named after Dr. Francis Kermode, the curator of the BC Museum, he had this position form about 1891 and retired 1940.
I am not sure how he is related to the IOM apart from the Manx surname! I have tried, as have members of the Kermode family but so far no luck in finding a connection.
The Kermodei (pronounced Kerr-mo-dee) is indeed a separate and distinct member of the black bear family Kermodeis tend to be a bit larger and, of course, truly a bear of another colour, ranging from a light chestnut blond (or red) to a shade of steel blue-grey (which are also called glacier bears). They were first identified as a new and distinct species by the director of the B.C. Provincial Museum, Francis Kermode, in 1905. It took over 20 years before Dr. Kermode was able to obtain a live yearling cub, to observe and study. From this work, he finally concluded (in 1928) that indeed the Kermodei was not an albino, but an extremely rare sub-species of the common North American black bear.

I thought that this might be interesting, hope that's ok?

Kind regards
Sue
:0)