100 



i^ 



100 YEARS EXPLORING LIFE, 1888-1988 



Robert Chambers, cell 

 biologist. MBL Archives. 



why don't you change your name?" After all, Morgan was named after a 

 "bloody pirate." The students might have pointed out Morgan's relationship 

 to a Confederate general as well. It is always reassuring to "have something" 

 on the great leaders. 



Columbia's cell biologist Robert Chambers provided even more fond 

 amusement to the MBL community. At the end of the season one year, he 

 and his wife were rushing to make the train on time, as the family often ran 

 late. The laboratory community had pitched in to help get all the Chambers's 

 belongings to the station, because very few people had cars in the mid- 1920s, 

 and those who did often used tliem to help others. When they reached tlie 

 station, the Chambers couple suddenly realized that they had left their son 

 Bobby home in the bathtub. Mrs. Chambers kept the engineer busy talking, 

 w^hile the young helpers hurried back to wrap tiie baby in newspapers and 

 bring him to the train. 



Robert Chambers was evidently the prototypical absent-minded profes- 

 sor. A favorite story concerned a day back in New York, but it could hiive 

 happened in Woods Hole. Chambers had taken all the family's umbrellas to 

 be repaired and had forgotten to reti-ieve them. When he went off to 



