BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



of permanent agriculture, holding himself at any time ready 

 to meet any sacrifice in the line of duty, and no martyr ever 

 journeyed where duty led more cheerfully than did he. 



It was this spirit that took him to Greece in an effort to do 

 something that might help to heal the wounds of a war that 

 he bitterly deplored and whose methods of combat he vigor- 

 ously resented. It was during this year's service that he con- 

 tracted the ailment that cost his life and deprived the world of 

 one of its most valuable scientists and benefactors in the very 

 zenith of his powers. He worked cruelly hard in Greece, in 

 company with his old friend and student, Dr. George 

 Bouyoucos, of Michigan. He collected and analyzed hundreds 

 of samples of soil, drew his conclusions, made complete re- 

 ports, was decorated by the King with the rarely bestowed 

 Order of Our Saviour, and sailed for home in what seemed 

 to be a perfect state of health, only to be stricken four days 

 later with an attack of malaria, from which he died at the 

 British Military Hospital at Gibraltar on October 6, 1919. 



Memorial exercises were held at the University of Illinois 

 on January 22, 1920, of which this little volume is the record. 



So closed the career of one of the noblest characters the 

 world has ever known ; a scientist of the highest order and a 

 benefactor to mankind ; a firm friend and a courteous Christian 

 gentleman. 



Eugene Davenport 



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