Nov., 1921 ANNUAL MEETING — OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 15 



few men that it is possible to know on so short an acquaintance, yet 

 due to a common interest in fossils. I may, I believe, fairly claim to 

 have attained a certain intimacy with him. 



It began when he modestly offered to go with me and show me, if I 

 cared to have him, the localities where Dr. Clark, of Berea, had been 

 most successful in his search for fossil fish. "If I cared!" To me, it is 

 an opportunity forever lost that I was able to visit only one locality 

 with this man who had been the intimate companion of Dr. Clark, the 

 indefatigable collector, and Edward Claypole, the elucidator, of the 

 Cleveland shale fish. 



With the same modesty, almost with depreciation lest he might 

 seem to intrude himself, he invited me to look over his small collection 

 of fossils from the Cleveland district. When he learned that Western 

 Reserve University possessed almost nothing from the Cleveland shale, 

 he offered me anything of his from that formation "which might be 

 worth having;" the University gratefully received it all. After his 

 death, Mrs. Piwonka, at his request offered the remainder of the collec- 

 tion to the University, "such portion as might be thought worth 

 having." The whole collection is not large, but contains much material 

 from the Cleveland and Sandusky regions, all carefully marked as to 

 locality, all valuable, particularly that from the Cleveland shale which 

 yields material only on long careful search. Some of the material is 

 unique. In earlier years, he had been equally generous with his findings, 

 and the collections of both the United States Geological Survey and of 

 the Dominion Geological Survey of Canada, have been enriched at his 

 hands ; in the days when Dr. Clark combed all Cleveland fish-producing 

 localities twice yearly, an occasional choice specimen was obtain by 

 him from Mr. Piwonka, which must since have lodged either in the 

 British Museum or the American Museum of Natural History. 



Before his death, he donated to the Department of Geology of 

 Western Reserve University a generous sum of money to defray 

 expenses of members of the department in making extensive field trips 

 or elaborate collections. The donation was unsolicited, and was made 

 with the firm assertion that he did not do it in any effort to perpetuate 

 his name (indeed, he rather insisted that his name be left out of it) ; 

 that though fortune had not been lavish with him, yet she had not 

 been unkind, perhaps kinder than to most individuals engaged in 

 University work, and he wished to defray a part of the expense that 

 they are frequently put to in the prosecution of their interests. This 

 sum has already been of service, and will be of yet more service, in the 

 recovery of the last fish and amphibian remains that can possibly be 

 obtained from the famous old Linton Coal-Measures locality of eastern 

 Ohio. 



Mr. Piwonka was bom in New York City of Bohemian stock. He 

 was valedictorian of his class from Central High School, Cleveland. 

 His interest in natural science was first aroused by S. G. Williams, then 

 a teacher in Central High School (who later became Professor of Edu- 

 cation in Cornell University, and whose collection forms the bulk of the 

 paleontological collection of Western Reserv^e University). After 



