8 I FRIENDS AND RELATIVES A 179 



collecting crew assistants and have risen to head their departments. Their 

 energetic actions in hurricanes, at the beginning of summers when many 

 people rush in at once wanting everything immediately set up just right, or 

 in other times of need demonstrate their work well beyond the call of duty. 

 Many of these people, some second- or third-generation MBL, believe in the 

 MBL as an important place of science and want to be part of it. So many 

 cases abound — of the specimen boy who rose to become instructor or even 

 trustee, the waiter who became lab director, the dining hall chef whose 

 father ran the earlier food service, or the local youngster made head of his 

 department. Many of these people could have made more money else- 

 where, but they have made their own generous contributions to the MBL. 



The MBL Associates is a supportive group that has arisen since 1944 

 out of similar affections for the place. People associated with the MBL but 

 not all as researchers or course instructors have wanted to help. Special 

 projects such as the Futures in Science "FiS kids" program or the orga- 

 nizing of photographs or acquiring of rare books for the Archives and Rare 

 Book Room have attracted the attention of the MBL Associates and other 

 volunteers. 



Aside from its many invaluable friends around the world, the MBL also 

 has an important set of close relatives. Without Spencer Baird and the Fish 

 Commission, the MBL Supply Department could not have come into exist- 

 ence as such. It was Baird's enthusiastic encouragement of Hyatt, his 

 arranging for the original land to be given, and his generously supplying the 

 seawater, collecting boats, and much equipment in the early years that 

 made the MBL happen. (Baird actually set up the agreement but died before 

 the MBL opened.) Baird's supporters, who had subscribed to tables for 

 their students to do research at the Fish Commission, did not see the point 

 of encouraging this competition. In particular. Brooks at Johns Hopkins 

 University and Alexander Agassiz at Harvard remained skeptical or even 

 hostile towards the new enterprise. Who needs two labs in Woods Hole, they 

 asked, particularly when one funded by the federal government would be 

 far better? Who cares about teaching students and high school teachers, 

 when research really matters? Baird did recognize the value of the MBL 

 enterprise and without jealousy paved the way for what he realized might 

 become competition for Fish Commission research. Through the twentieth 

 century, the relationship has remained relatively distant because of the 

 Fisheries' government mandate to pursue practical work more than re- 

 search and teaching of biology. Yet the institutions have continued to 

 cooperate in a variety of ways, loaning each other boats or other equipment, 

 or even scientists at times. 



The Coast Guard has remained even more autonomous, because of its 

 very distinct functions. Yet MBL crews and the Coast Guard crews have 

 helped each otlier in important ways over the years. And MBL scientists 



