STANLEY FIELD 



(Continued from page 2) 



Mr. Field and Sara Carroll Brown of Baltimore were 

 married in 1900 and they celebrated their sixty-second 

 wedding anniversary before her death in 1962. Mrs. Field 

 shared her husband's interest in the Museum and was most 

 generous in her gifts. Their two daughters, Mrs. T. Clifford 

 Rodman and Mrs. James A. Cook, one son, Joseph Nash 

 Field, two grandchildren, and six great grandchildren sur- 

 vive. Mr. Joseph Field has served on the Board of Trustees 

 of Chicago Natural History Museum for more than 30 years 

 and is Second Vice President and Chairman of the Building 

 Committee. 



Stanley Field sought no honors, but they came to him 

 regardless. The University of Chicago and Northwestern 

 University awarded him honorary Doctor of Laws degrees 

 and he received the Chicago Medal of Merit from the City 



of Chicago in 1 958. The cultural institutions with which he 

 was associated honored him with many forms of recognition. 

 Although much of Stanley Field's life was devoted to 

 giving to the Museum and to building its structure and col- 

 lections, he never allowed preoccupation with money and 

 things to take precedence over his concern for people. His 

 advice, his work, and his gifts gained the respect of those 

 who were privileged to be associated with him at the Mu- 

 seum; his concern for them as individuals gained their 

 affection. It was inevitable that the days after his death 

 found the Museum staff with a feeling of great personal 

 and individual loss, but with each person recalling his fa- 

 vorite story of Mr. Field, usually centered on his delightful 

 sense of humor. Chicago and the world owe much to a 

 distinguished gentleman, and his life has created its own 

 monument. EL\V 



Cover: Stanley Field and a young cousin, Frederick W. Field 

 (Photograph courtesy of Cowles Magazines and Broadcasting Inc.) 



MUSEUM NEWS 



(Continued from page 6) 



antibiotics, who is Professor at the Rocke- 

 feller Institute in New York; and Dr. 

 William A. Fowler, distinguished nu- 

 clear physicist from the California Insti- 

 tute of Technology. 



This year's Holiday Science Lecturer, 

 a pioneer in the field of molecular biol- 

 ogy, has used a wide variety of methods 

 to investigate organization at the col- 

 loidal and molecular dimension, includ- 

 ing polarization optics, X-ray diffrac- 

 tion, and electron microscopy. At 

 Washington University, where he became 

 Chairman of the Zoology Department in 

 1939, he and his students made notable 

 contributions to the knowledge of nerve 

 ultrastructure and biochemistry. In 1941 

 he accepted a call from President Karl 

 Taylor Compton to head MIT's effort 

 to develop a world center of molecular 

 biology. After time out for war research 

 on biomedical problems (particularly 

 wound repair and the treatment of 

 burns) the MIT biology staff, under Dr. 

 Schmitt's direction, started an intensive 

 program of teaching and research in mo- 

 lecular biology. Nerve, muscle, collagen, 

 membranes, fibrils, and other cellular 

 structures were studied by means of all 

 available biophysical and biochemical 

 techniques. 

 Page 8 DECEMBER 



This work led to the organization by 

 Dr. Schmitt, in 1962, of the interuniver- 

 sity, international Neurosciences Re- 

 search Program. Mathematicians, phys- 

 icists, chemists, and engineers joined, in 

 this program, with experts in various 

 biomedical sciences dealing with nerve, 

 brain, and behavior, to investigate the 

 physico-chemical basis of mental proc- 

 esses such as memory, learning, and con- 

 sciousness. This interdisciplinary attack 

 has given new and fruitful direction to 

 man's ancient yet ultramodern drive to 

 understand the workings of his mind. 



For his trail-blazing discoveries, Profes- 

 sor Schmitt was elected to the National 

 Academy of Sciences and has received 

 numerous prizes and awards, including 

 honorary doctorates from five universi- 

 ties here and abroad. He has served as 

 president of several national professional 

 societies and as a member of Federal 

 committees and councils for the support 

 of scientific research. 



DISTINGUISHED 

 VISITOR 



Professor Antonio Molina R. of Es- 

 cuela Agricola Panamericana, Hon- 

 duras, has come to the Museum to work 

 in the botanical collections. He will be 

 here until the end of the year. Professor 

 Molina is a Field Associate on the Mu- 



Pro/essor Molina (right) with Dr. Louis O. 

 Williams, Chief Curator of Botany 



seum staff and associate investigator in a 

 long-term field research program that is 

 being carried on jointly by his institution 

 and the Museum. This program re- 

 ceives important financial assistance from 

 the National Science Foundation. 



Professor Molina brought with him 

 some 15,000 plant specimens. Sets of 

 these specimens will be placed in the col- 

 lections of the cooperating institutions. 

 Duplicate sets of specimens will be sent 

 to other institutions where there is a 

 special interest in the flora of Central 

 America. 



PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS 



