26 The Ohio Journal of Science [Vol. XVIII, No. 1, 



The Report of the Committee on Necrology 



The following report was presented by the Committee on 



Necrology : 



Not often does it fall to the Academy to record the loss of two leading 

 members and past officers within one year. Within three days, Sept. 11 

 and Sept. 14, there occurred the deaths of Professor Charles Smith 

 Prosser and Professor William Rane Lazenby. In many points their 

 lives had run in similar ways; both bom as farmer's sons in central New 

 York, both graduates of Cornell University, both of necessity in part 

 working their way through, both retained for a number of years by the 

 University as assistants in their respective fields, both subsequently 

 called to Ohio State University as heads of their respective depart- 

 ments, both loyal members of the Sigmi Xi, and both active through 

 their entire scientific careers in painstaking research and conscientious 

 teaching. 



Professor Lazenby was born in 1850 at Bellona, N. Y. He was 

 graduated froin Cornell University in 1874, at which time he won the 

 Ezra Cornell prize in Agriculture. He was Instructor in Horticulture 

 and Botany, '74-77 and Assistant Professor, '77-81 at Cornell; Professor 

 of Botany and Horticulture, '81-'92, of Horticulture and Forestry, 

 '92- '08, and of Forestry at Ohio State University from that date to his 

 death. He was founder and for five years director of the Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station, an institution which has been a very important factor 

 in the agricultural development of his adopted state. 



He was an active member of many scientific organizations, among 

 which are: 



American Association for the Advancement of Science (twice 

 Secretary and once Vice-President of Section I) ; 



Society Horticultural Science; 



American Pomological Society; 



American Forestry Society (Vice-President many years) ; 



Society for Promotion of Agricultural Science (Secretary five 

 years and President two years) ; 



Ohio Academy of Science (founder and President, '02) ; 



Ohio Forestry Society (President, '04 to date of his death). 

 His activity in these organizations grew out of a keen interest in 

 them, their members and their ideals, an interest which expressed 

 itself in wise counsel, frequent contributions to their programs, and 

 discussions of the papers of others. 



Teaching was his main business during the college year, but his 

 summers were always spent in travel and investigation; several were 

 spent in Europe, studying her forests and forestry methods. 



His publications include many contributions both to Scientific 

 Journals and State reports and to the semi-popular and popular press. 



In the words of a close friend at Cornell: "While he found his great 

 interest in life, the mastery and development of his special field in 

 science, it was the human side of him that had the strongest hold on his 

 friends and colleagues. He never lost his interest in the struggles 



