Vernon Lyman Kellogg 1867-1937

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS VOLUME XX- --XINTH MEMOIR BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF VERNON LYMAN KELLOGG 1867-1937 BY C. E. McCLUNG I'RESENTED TO THE ACADEMY AT THE AUTUMN MEETING, 1938 VERNON LYMAN KELLOGG 1867-1937 BY C. E. MC CLUNG Dates, places and events are easy to record and in the life of a man have their significance, but his nature is not revealed thereby. When the time comes to make a record of the real character of one of our friends, we are always oppressed with the inadequacy of our understanding and the feebleness of our expression. David Starr Jordan with two large volumes tried, in "The Days of a Man," to show what it was that made him the man he became. His friend and disciple, Vernon Lyman Kellogg, whose contribution to Jordan's development is so fully recorded therein, leaves for himself no such delineation of character. It remains for us who knew him to do what we can to estimate and record his life and achievements. Such a brief notice as this, however, can serve no further purpose than to anticipate a fuller record which doubtless will be forthcoming. To the University of Kansas, in the translated New England town of Lawrence, came the young Kellogg in 1885. Here, in this infant institution, he was thrown intimately into contact, as student, assistant and secretary, with scholarly, New England- trained Francis H. Snow, the newly elected Chancellor and an enthusiastic entomologist. They became firm friends and the association proved profitable in every way to Kellogg. The beginning of his work at Kansas University is character- istic of his whole career. Always the opportunity for the next step—always the ability to utilize it. These opportunities were many and varied and called for a wide range of qualifications— social, scientific, linguistic, humanitarian. But underlying all these qualities and making their application easy and effective was a personality so pleasing, adaptive, persuasive and charming that opposition usually failed to develop. No matter what the type of work that engaged Kellogg's attention, the course of events was much the same. In part this facility of operation resulted from his habit of inconspicuousness. In most of his endeavors he associated himself with some strong and outstand- ing personality which occupied the public eye and took the 24S NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS VOL. XX blame or the credit for what resulted. Kellogg meanwhile pursued his studied course, fully aware of the practical bearings of his policies and of the reactions which they awakened. With infinite tact and an uncanny appreciation of personalities, he quietly pursued his way, arousing little opposition and creating no ill feeling. If opposition developed and proved obdurate he did not stress his position, but put the matter aside until a more favorable opportunity. In the event that delay did not improve his chance of success, he made no further effort. The years at Lawrence were busy ones, but he had time to make many friends—Chancellor Snow, an enthusiast of inde- fatigable vigor; S. W. Williston, a man of profound understanding and high scientific ideals—an authority in such diverse fields as vertebrate paleontology and dipterology; E. C. Frank- lin, later a colleague at Stanford, a man of high ideals and achievements; and E. E. Slosson, a writer on scientific subjects of unusual literary ability. The University was young and in the formative stage, with no hindering traditions. Kellogg was free to go his own way and took full advantage of the opportunity. This way led him to activities beyond the campus limits. He wrote for the local paper a column on birds and this led to reportorial work and even to editorial efforts. Thus his urge to write, which later became engrossing, early manifested itself. A desire to travel, which was not so easily satisfied in those days, led to frequent trips to Colorado and elsewhere. Human interest in all his occupations was prominent, whether in efforts to attract people to the study of birds, to protect them from the attacks of injurious insects, or to show them the possible influence of biology in human life. All in all, these years sketched, in broad outline, Kellogg's future course—administration, writing, inves- tigating, interpreting and teaching. While it is true that the influence of the college years was direct and strong, it is also true that the qualities which they revealed in Kellogg were inherent and had already evidenced themselves in his early youth. William Allen White, who knew him well, in an editorial in the Emporia Gazette, gives a charming- description of these early days : 246 VERNON LYMAN KELLOGG MC CLUXG "His was a happy boyhood. It was busy and purposeful. It foreshadowed his life. Few boys who have grown up in this town have got so much out of the first years as he did. "They lived such lives as boys now know only in envious dreams. They skated and swam, trapped and hunted and fished and studied wild life until the whole annual panorama of nature with the going and coming of plants and birds and flowers and the passing colors of the grass and trees became a part of their life. "Is it a wonder that such a boy became a scientist? How could he help it ? When he left this town to go to the University of Kansas in 1885 at 18, his fate was written inexorably in the blood and environment of childhood. A college professor's son. Vernon had learned casually to love the outer manifestations oi nature. He yearned secretly to study the inner sources of things." The few years of experience at the University of Kansas were so fruitful and revealing that they brought Kellogg to the notice of President Jordan, and without hesitation, he offered Kellogg a position on the faculty of Stanford University. Here he came intimately into contact with President Jordan, just as he had with Chancellor Snow at Kansas, and with him he col- laborated in teaching and writing. The association was stimu- lating and helpful in many ways both to Kellogg and to Jordan; fruitful to the University—and to its students. Here the greatest amount of Kellogg's scientific writing was done, and here he practically ended his career as a teacher and investigator. In view of his great local influence it is curious to note how few were his contacts with fellow biologists in their organizations, and how slight the recognition of his excellent work. This is probably due to the fact that he placed emphasis upon the popularization of biology rather than upon its extension. And yet his scientific bibliography alone would do great credit to any investigator. His sustained interest over many years in the Mallophaga made him the leading authority in this group. But this taxonomic work was only incidental to the question of the evolutionary importance of the biting lice. This same phylogenetic interest he carried over into the study of other insect groups. There was, in his mind, always the broad significance of the biological facts he had discovered. Even the exten- sive experimental work on the silk worm, extending over a 247 NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS VOL. XX period of fifteen years, traced back to this interest. The character and extent of his writings are so well revealed in his bibliography that they need not be mentioned further. The years at Stanford stand out as those of his greatest scientific productivity. A constant stream of books, reviews, ad- dresses and research papers came year after year from his pen, evidencing sustained interest and power. At the same time he became influential in the affairs of the University and an inspira- tion to its students. With Jordan he gave a course on evolution which aroused such interest and enthusiasm that numerous study groups were formed for more extended discussions. Here Kellogg grew and ripened and prepared himself unknowingly for the heavy responsibilities that were later to fall on his shoulders. The final scenes of Kellogg's life were laid.in places remote from those of his early life, and they were remote also in the character of the interests which they held. These interests were much more general and popular and their relations and impli- cations more generally understood. The activities which they engendered made but small contribution to the development of his personality and character, which were well established when the world's madness called him to Europe to make application of the knowledge and training which the west had given him. Circumstances which he there encountered did, however, open up much greater opportunities for his talents, and doubtless greatly strengthened and broadened his purpose to make biology a force in human affairs. His success in alleviating suffering and in interpreting the motives and activities of contending peoples is well known and is evident in the honors that came to him. Participation of the United States in the world war brought him at last to Washington to aid in the organization of science in support of the Government. The first formal result of these efforts was the organization of the National Research Council in which he became chairman of the Divisions of Agriculture, Botany and Zoology. When the Council was later made a continuing body he was named the Permanent Secretary, in which office he continued, active and emeritus, until his death. 248 VKKNON I.Y.VIAN KF.LLOCG MC CUJN<; He was also Chairman of the Division of Educational Relations for ten years and a member of innumerable committees.

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