IN MEMORIAM 
FRED C. WERKENTHIN 
On June 13, 1922, death again entered the ranks of Iowa scien- 
tists, taking from us a young botanist of unusual promise. 
Fred C. Werkenthin received his A.B. and A.M. degrees from 
the University of Texas in 1915. He was assistant professor of 
biology in the College of New Mexico and station plant pathologist, 
1915-1918; associate professor of botany and assistant botanist 
in experiment station in New Hampshire State College, 1918- 
1920; instructor in botany at Iowa State College, 1920-1921, and 
assistant professor, 1921-1922. A short time before his death, 
he was elected head of the botany and bacteriology department in 
the University of Louisiana. 
While connected with the New Mexico Agricultural College, 
Mr. Werkenthin published a number of papers on plant diseases 
and their control. He did some excellent work on the fungus 
diseases of Texas soils, the results of which were published in 
Phytopathology, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1916. At the time of his death, 
he had ready for publication a paper on the classification of 
Cucurbits and one on the history of plant breeding. Thus, within 
a period of seven years after graduating from the university, he 
had published more than a half dozen excellent papers and had 
been advanced to the headship of botany and bacteriology in 
one of the leading southern universities. 
All his promotions were indicative of his merits. Like many 
others, he was forced to earn most of the expenses of his edu- 
cation. He was an incessant worker and had the ability of ac- 
complishing much in a short time. 
Fred was not only an excellent investigator, but he was a re- 
markable teacher. He was able, as few teachers are, to combine 
the lecture and recitation methods so efficiently as to cover the 
subject matter one could ordinarily cover in a lecture and yet 
receive about as much response from the class as ordinarily ob- 
tained in recitation. There were no passive recipients in his 
