et reat Ub OUN ee BOL Eset N 15 
Afield With Frank Smith 
Not long ago a professor in one of the state universities west of the 
Mississippi said: “Professor Frank Smith has left a deeper imprint with 
his teaching of ornithology than any man I know.” 
However, only a student of his can wholly appreciate the extent to 
which the teachings of Frank Smith promoted interest in bird study. 
Many students entered the course to obtain “snap credits’? and remained 
and repeated for sheer love of the man and his subject. His enthusiasm 
and influence was sufficient to induce the writer, then a freshman in the 
university, to rise at four o'clock every morning from the first of February 
to the first of June and tramp two miles to the “Forestry” so as to record 
the migration arrivals of the day. If it was raining, and it often was, so 
much the better, for those were our banner days for new arrivals, coming, 
like the rain, with the south wind, as so conclusively shown in Professor 
Smith’s published articles. 
Sunday mornings meant a four or five-hour tramp in the woods of 
Crystal Lake for Gross, then only a freshman, too, the Professor and myself. 
Coming home through the streets of the university town just in time for 
dinner we had to run the gauntlet of returning churchgoers. Our black, 
limp-leather-covered, gilt-edged Chapman Handbooks held piously in our 
hands looked not unlike a testament or hymnal, and while our consciences 
needed no salving, those of our friends were saved from shock. Many of 
his students owe not only their love of birds to his influence but his example 
and kindly counsel aided them in many ways. May he for many years 
enjoy his well-earned rest from teaching. 
Frep S$. Lopce, La Grange, Illinois. 
Professor Frank Smith is not only a distinguished scientist and a great 
teacher but to his students he was also a real friend. It was Professor 
Smith who inspired my ambition to attempt a university education and | 
shall never be able to repay him for his encouragement and personal assist- 
ance during the entire time | was working my way through Illinois. His 
home was a place where his students were always sure of a welcome. 
It was there we went when we needed help and counsel and we never came 
away disappointed. “Then, too, Mrs. Smith was a delightful hostess and 
she also had a deep interest in the boys. Her home-made fudge was famous 
to many generations of students. Only those who have experienced it can 
know what this hospitality and friendship meant. 
Some of my fondest memories are of the daily early morning walks we 
took together to the ‘‘Forestry’’ and the longer trips to Crystal Lake on 
Sunday in quest of bird lore. I can picture as clearly as if it were yesterday 
