PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



VOL. 21 NOVEMBER, 1919 No. 8 



EMERSON LISCUM DIVEN. 

 BY AUGUST BUSCK, W. D. HUNTER AND CARL HEINRICH. 



On August 7, 1919, one of our youngest members, Emerson 

 Liscum Diven, met his death in an aeroplane accident near 

 Eagle Pass, Texas, in the performance of official duty, scouting 

 for cotton areas along the Rio Grande River. For several months 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture had been using an aero- 

 plane for the purpose of locating and mapping cotton areas in 

 Southern Texas, in the fight against the Pink Bollworm of cotton. 

 The aeroplane had been found extremely useful in locating hid- 

 den fields in regions not otherwise easily surveyed. 



This work had been undertaken with the cooperation of the 

 Army Aviation Corps and an expert aviator, Lieut. Wm. H. 

 Tillisch, had been detailed a pilot. An extensive survey of the 

 border region along the Rio Grande was under way with Mr. 

 Diven in charge as scout and he had already successfully finished 

 the work from Brownsville as far as Eagle Pass. 



On starting from Eagle Pass for Del Rio while the machine 

 had reached an altitude of only a hundred feet it fell into a nose 

 dive and both Lieut. Tillisch and Mr. Diven were instantly 

 killed. 



Young Diven's sudden death cuts short a career of an unusual 

 promise. As a young boy he was interested in insects and from 

 his fifteenth year had been a member of our Society. Those 

 in close contact with him held him in high regard as a man and 

 a student. They were impressed by his keen interest, imagina- 

 tion and the painstaking genuineness of his scientific observa- 

 tions, and had high hopes for his future, which gave every prom- 

 ise of brilliant achievements. 



He was born at Elmira, N. Y., on April lil, IS()<I; graduated 

 from the Elmira Academy and entered Cornell University on a 

 state scholarship in the fall of 191(5. In 191S he enlisted in the 

 U. S. Army and was sent to Camp Lee as a candidate in the 

 < )fficers Training School, from which he was discharged after 

 the signing of the armistice. During the past three summers 



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