|
IN MEMORIAM
ELMER JULIUS LUND
Elmer Julius Lund, retired professor
of zoology, died on November 28, 1969. He was 84.
Professor Lund was born on December
13, 1884, in Springfield, Minnesota. He received a bachelor's degree
from Hamline University in 1910 and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University
in 1914.
Dr. Lund taught at the universities
of Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Washington. He joined the faculty of
The University of Texas at Austin in 1926, where he developed the physiology
and biophysics division. Professor Lund taught until he was dismissed
by the Board of Regents in 1949 for refusing to cooperate with his colleagues
on departmental matters after the division of physiology and biophysics
became part of the zoology department. A faculty committee had recommended
severing him from the department but retaining him as director of the
Institute of Marine Science.
Professor Lund was an expert in biophysics.
In 1931 he was named research professor at the University. In 1935 he
investigated a major fish kill caused by a red tide in Port Aransas.
His work eventually led to the founding of the UT Marine Science Institute
in Port Aransas on a ten-acre tract of land owned by Port Aransas Mayor
Boone Walker. The institute was formally established in 1941 and Professor
Lund served as its first director. Following World War II, he purchased
another twelve acres and a building on the new property and donated
them to UT Austin. In 1945, Professor Lund established the Publications
of the Institute of Marine Science, later renamed Contributions
in Marine Science.
Professor Lund published Bioelectric
Fields and Growth (1947). He was a Fellow of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Society
of Zoologists.
An outstanding discus thrower as an
undergraduate at Hamline University, Professor Lund was inducted posthumously
into that institution's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1971.
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
Biographical sketch prepared by Teresa Palomo Acosta and posted
on the Faculty Council web site on January 18, 2001. Additional
biographical sources can be found in the Barker Texas History
Center and the New
Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association,
1996.
|
