Albert Homer Purdue. Zoi 
health restored. The morning of the operation he dictated for publica- 
tion in the Resources of Tennessee a paper giving the results of his 
recent investigation of manganese. Then he walked into the operating 
room as calmly as if he were going into his office for a day’s work. 
At first everything indicated a speedy recovery, but complications arose 
and he died a week later from uremic poison. 
Mr. Purdue was quiet and unassuming—a man who disliked display, 
who sought always to keep his own personality and achievements in the 
background, yet a man who made friends that stuck, because he could 
prove himself a true friend under all circumstances; a man whose judg- 
ment was sought by many; a man whose influence was always for sanity, 
for uplift, for scientific accuracy, even in the simple things of life. I 
still remember that when we were working together in the mountains 
of Arkansas, it was my method to fall into the ways of the people with 
whom we were living, especially in adopting the vernacular of the 
region—a habit to which Purdue always objected and for which he often 
chided me. He would insist that, as educated men, we had no right 
not to give the mountain people a glimpse of correct English. This 
same regard for the Queen’s English is seen in the painstaking care 
with which he edited all of the manuscripts published by him as State 
Geologist. 
As a field geologist, Purdue was tireless, painstaking and thorough, 
and the same energy and careful attention characterized all of the prep- 
aration of his reports. This desire for high quality and accuracy doubt- 
less reduced somewhat the number and length of papers prepared by 
him, but his work made up in quality what it lacked in volume. 
While he was at the University of Arkansas he spent the summer 
months in the field in that State—most of the time in camp with a party 
of from one to three of his students—and wrote his reports at odd 
moments during the school year. Although his field-work was varied, 
it consisted mainly of detailed areal mapping for the United States 
Geological Survey in a number of quadrangles in the nerthwestern and 
west-central parts of the State. Whenever funds were appropriated by 
the Arkansas legislature for the State Survey he made it count as much 
as possible by co-operating with the United States Geological Survey. 
Most of his geologic work in Tennessee was administrative, but he found 
time to make numerous short field trips into different parts of the State. 
Much of the work carried on under his administration as State Geologist 
in that State was done in co-operation with the United States Geological 
Survey and the United States Soil Survey. 
Among his more important papers are the Winslow and Eureka 
Springs—Harrison folios and the De Queen—Caddo Gap and Hot Springs 
folios, awaiting publication; the slate deposits of Arkansas, besides a 
