IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
39 
Dr. Fairchild has helped not only to advance medical education but medical 
practice in Iowa. His influence is felt in all parts of the state where the early 
graduates of the Iowa State College and of Drake JJniversity Medical Depart- 
ment have gone. His influence has been wholesome and good throughout. 
K. ELLSWORTH CALL AND F. M. WITTER. 
When the Academy was organized it was thought that a distinctive service 
might be rendered to Iowa Science by interesting the science teachers of our 
high schools in the work of the Academy. While the list of the members shows 
that not a few of the high schools science teachers of the state have been asso- 
ciated with us in the undertaking of making science what it should be in our 
public schools, there is still room for an enlarged interest in this direction. 
Two high school teachers took an active interest in the early history of the 
Iowa Academy and were counted among the most active of the charter members, 
namely. Dr. R. E. Call, now Professor of Biology of the West Clinton High 
School, New York City, and F. M. Witter, long time Superintendent of the City 
Schools of Muscatine, who has passed to his reward. 
Dr. Call served as Secretary of the Iowa Academy of Science from 1887-1891. 
He was active in promoting the interests of the Academy in Des Moines. 
While an active member he made a number of contributions on geology, con- 
chology, and zoology. He is a most versatile and facile writer, and is thor- 
oughly trained. 
Born in Brooklyn, New York, May 13, 1856, educated in the public schools- 
of New York, graduated from the Cazenovia Seminary in 1875, entered Syracuse- 
University in 1875, graduated from the University of Indiana in 1890 receiving: 
the B. A. Degree; A. M. in 1891; M. Sc. of the Iowa Agricultural College in 
1891; M. D. Hospital College of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, 1895; Ph. D. 
Ohio State University in 1895. He was principal of Stonington, Conn., High 
School 1877-79; Superintendent of the City Schools of David City, Nebraska, 
1880-1883, connected with the U. S. National Museum 1884-85, Special Assistant 
U. S. Geological Survey 1885, Principal of High School, Moline, 111.; Assistant 
Professor of Zoology University of Missouri 1887. Professr Natural Science, 
West Des Moines High School 1887-1892; Assistant Geologist, Arkansas Geolog- 
ical Survey 1888-1892; Professor of Natural Science, Manual Training High 
School, Louisville, Ky., 1892-1896; Superintendent of City Schools, Lawrence- 
burg, Indiana, 1896-1898; professor of Physiography Erasmus Hall High School, 
Brooklyn, New York, 1898-1899; Curator Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Institute 
of Arts and Sciences, 1898-1905; Professor of Biology DeWitt Clinton High 
School, New York, 1906. Also Nature Study lecturer Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 
New York, 1903-1905; lecturer Board of Education, New York, 1896. 
Dr. Call has the faculty of expressing himself in an easy and forcible way. 
He has shown himself to be a splendid teacher and an enthusiast on scientific 
subjects. He has inculcated a desire in his pupils to study natural history. 
His work on the Unionidae in which he has been interested for more than a 
quarter of a century is of a high order and he has published the following 
monograph on these groups: Geographic Distribution of the Uniondae of 
the Mississippi Valley and The Parvus Group of Unionidae (Proc. la. Acad. Sci. 
1:45, Part I). He also has written important papers on The Mollusca of the 
Great Basin and The Mollusca of Indiana. Call has also made a number of 
