40 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Voi.. XXVII, 1920 
since become a distinguished authority on geology, and a leader in higher 
education, as dean of Northwestern University. 
Upon our arrival at his home Call joyously gave up the entire evening 
to these youngsters, showing them his books and his cabinet of shells, 
all the while giving a fascinating running talk on the high points of 
interest. The youthful company had also thoughtfully come prepared; 
for they had their pockets full of specimens of which they wished to 
know the names. They had already learned the long Eatin titles of some 
few forms but they wanted to enlarge their scientific vocabulary. Call 
willingly helped to do this. 
Call was indeed a naturalist of the most versatile sort. This very 
fact prevented him from concentrating effort deeply upon any one 
thing or for any length of time. His exceptionally alert mind and normal 
great activity thus largely spent their force unavailingly. His efforts 
were bent along the line of the formal systematist rather than of the 
philosopher. With him product rather than, process was the all-impor- 
tant desideratum. He was widely read; and of biological topics his 
knowledge almost bordered on the uncanny. There were few fields of 
science in which he could not discourse intelligently and at length in all 
their genetic, developmental and taxonomic aspects. 
He was what is generally called a Bohemian, although always with ser- 
ious ambitions. He was a brilliant talker whether in a small company or 
on the lecture platform, fully able at the moment to turn his vast know- 
ledge to account. His conversation abounded in lively anecdote told with 
infinite zest; he was thoroughly genial and ready at good humored repar- 
tee; and he was never hampered by any excessive reverence for ancestral 
proprieties. Even an ordinary social gathering must have consisted of 
very ponderous interests if it could not be stirred into animation by a man 
with so much more quicksilver in his veins than falls to the lot of the 
average citizen. 
Call was generous to a fault, helpful beyond measure, and thoroughly 
sympathetic. As a teacher he was seemingly without a peer. It is per- 
haps from this angle that the value of his great services should be judged 
rather than from that of cold, copious and creative productivity. 
Charles Keyes. 
