VOLNEY MORGAN SPALDING 



HOWARD S. REED 



University of California, 

 Graduate School of Tropical Agriculture, Riverside, California 



One of the builders of American botany passed from this life 

 on November 12, 1918. Professor Spalding was a member of 

 the botanical staff of the University of Michigan for twenty-eight 

 years, and for most of this period was head of the department. 

 His was a life characterized by usefulness in science and by inspi- 

 ration to his followers. As a pioneer teacher and investigator in 

 science he shared the onerous labors of a few comrades as his 

 name is now honored by many. 



Possessing a charming personality and an unquenchable spirit 

 of optimism, he promoted industry and harmony among his stu- 

 dents upon whom he impressed his own remarkable zeal for the 

 truth. 



In his boyhood his parents moved from western New York to 

 a farm near Ann Arbor where he grew to manhood. The sound 

 of the college bells called him from the farm to the class rooms in 

 which he spent most of his subsequent life. He graduated from 

 the University in 1873 and taught for a few years in the High 

 School of Battle Creek, Michigan. In 1876 he took up the work 

 in botany in the University of Michigan which he followed until 

 1904. Twice during this time he visited European universi- 

 ties for advanced study and in 1894 received the degree of Ph.D. 

 from Leipzig. 



During much of the time of his professorship, the University 

 of Michigan was developing what was then a new idea, viz; a 

 coordinated system of public education beginning with the primer 

 and ending with the collegiate degree. The university had to 

 meet the responsibility of training teachers for the secondary 

 schools if the system was to be a success, since it could not accept 



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