12 University of New Hampshire [Sta. Bui. 330 



ORMOND ROURKE BUTLER 



Ormond Rourke Butler, head of the Department of Botany of 

 the University of New Hampshire, and Botanist of the New Hamp- 

 shire Agricultural Experiment Station, died October 24, 1940. 



Dr. Butler was a native of Australia. He was born in Melbourne 

 August 14, 1877, the son of Thomas and Mary Anne (Rourke) Butler. 

 When he was eighteen years old he became a resident of the United 

 States and he was granted citizenship fourteen years later. During 

 the last twenty-eight years of his life he was a resident of Durham, 

 New Hampshire. 



Dr. Butler received the Diploma of the Institute Nationale Agri- 

 cole, Lausanne, in 1895. He was viticulturist-horticulturist in Cali- 

 fornia from 1895 to 1900. Pursuing collegiate training he entered 

 the University of California, which granted him a degree of Bachelor 

 of Science and following this a degree of Master of Science in 1905. 



He was assistant in viticulture in 1904-05 and became assistant 

 at the Whittier Biological Laboratory in 1906, continuing this work 

 through 1908. Further graduate work was pursued at Cornell Uni- 

 versity which conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 

 in 1910. Dr. Butler then accepted a position as research instructor 

 in the Department of Horticulture, at the University of Wisconsin. 

 In 1912 he was appointed head of the Department of Botany of the 

 University of New Hampshire, and Botanist of the New Hampshire 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. Both of these positions he held 

 until his death. 



Dr. Butler was a member of the American Phytopathological 

 Society, a member of the Society of Agronomy, a Fellow of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of 

 the honorary societies Sigma Xi and Phi Kappa Phi. 



In his chosen field Dr. Butler was one of the world authorities 

 on copper compounds in relation to control of fungous diseases. His 

 published papers on copper fungicides are widely known throughout 

 the world and are classics. Because of the relation of copper sprays 

 to certain plant diseases, Dr. Butler gave special attention to the 

 control of apple diseases and the .relation of control measures to. the 

 production of fruit ; and to the control of potato diseases. He was 

 the moving spirit in building up the growing of seed potatoes in 

 New Hampshire and in the present advanced practice of potato seed 

 certification. 



Throughout his career Dr. Butler was indefatigable in his work 

 as a scientist. The standards that he set for himself were invariably 

 the highest. In his search for the hidden facts underlying scientific 

 phenomena he never permitted favor or prejudice to influence his 

 findings. He was thoroughly grounded both in his possession of 

 fundamental scientific knowledge and in the planning of his research 

 undertakings. Scientific data secured through his investigations were 

 never in doubt as to their authenticity. 



