A Biographical Sketch of David G. Frey

Hydrobiologia 143 : 1-8, (1986) 1 © Dr W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht - Printed in the Netherlands A biographical sketch of David G . Frey David S . Baas' & Mary M . Boucherle2 'Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA 'Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada We have chosen this time to honor Dr . Frey be- In 1947, Frey accepted a faculty position at the cause this is the year of his 70th birthday and the University of North Carolina . During his first sum- year he will retire from teaching . As a teacher, he mer there, he organized and managed a survey of has introduced countless undergraduates to limnol- the Carolina Bay Lakes of the Coastal Plain . This ogy and paleolimnology, as well as having super- survey was under the auspices of the North Caroli- vised many graduate students in paleolimnological na Wildlife Resources Commission and was the research . We will return to this aspect of his career means by which Frey began investigating lake sedi- a little later. ments. David G . Frey was born on 10 October 1915, in After just one year, the Bay Lakes survey was Hartford, Wisconsin, USA . He studied at the abruptly cancelled. Fortunately for us, Frey's curi- University of Wisconsin at Madison, receiving his osity had been aroused as to the origin and de- Bachelor's degree in 1936, his Master's degree in velopment of this unique series of lakes . So, but 1938, and his Ph.D. in 1940 . Under his major with a few hundred dollars of support, he hired a professor, Chancey Juday, Frey studied the limnol- field assistant named H . T. Odum, and the two ogy of the three lower lakes at Madison, Wisconsin, young men set out to core the sediments of some of as affected by the effluent from the Madison waste the Bay Lakes . In his own words, Frey was 'plung- treatment plant . ing bravely into palynology without any prior ex- After completing his graduate studies at Wiscon- pierence' . The resultant study showed, essentially sin, Frey worked for the United States Fish and for the first time, that the northern species Pinus Wildlife Service. For two years he worked on the banksiana and Picea had been displaced southward salmon of the Columbia River system in the north- by the glaciers. western United States . He then spent three years In 1950, Frey joined the faculty at Indiana Uni- working on the oysters of the Chesapeake Bay. vesity, where he is still a member today . The In 1945, as an Ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve, palynological studies of the Bay Lakes were gradu- Frey was assigned to the Naval Medical Research ally phased out due to geographic constraints and Unit, based on Guam. During this time he inves- the demands of his new position . As Director of the tigated the freshwater habitats on several groups of Indiana Lake and Stream Survey, Frey designed Pacific Islands including the Mariana, Yap, Palau, and coordinated studies that assisted the State of and Admiralty Islands. These investigations Indiana in their management of Indiana fisheries . primarily looked at aquatic invertebrates as vectors During this time, Frey helped to translate Franz of human disease. Near the end of his Naval duties, Ruttner's book `Fundamentals of Limnology' and Frey was chosen to be part of a team that surveyed in so doing developed a great admiration for Rutt- the war damage to the Phillippine fisheries. This ner as both a person and a limnologist . was to be the first of several experiences he would In 1953, Frey was awarded a Guggenheim Fellow- have studying the freshwater biology of the Far ship and a Fullbright Senior Fellowship to Austria . East and Asia. These fellowships were to have made it possible for 2 the Frey family to spend the academic year in Aus- emphasize the non-cosmopolitan nature of the tria, allowing Frey to work with Ruttner at Lunz. family Chydoridae. Upon arriving at Vienna, it became apparent to Although the primary focus of Frey's research Frey that his plans would change . Lunz was in the has been the phylogeny and evolution of the Russian zone of occupation and travel there was chydorids, his contributions to paleolimnology not permitted . On his way to Vienna, Frey attended have been numerous and significant . Apart from the S.I.L. Congress in Cambridge . Here he met his work on the Bay Lakes and his classic papers on many people whose lasting friendships affected the Schleinsee and Langsee, he has published several course of his scientific development . This was the excellent reviews of paleolimnology, both general first of many international limnological meetings . reviews, and reviews focusing on animal microfos- As an alternative to working in Lunz, Frey sils and cladoceran remains in the sediments . These worked out of the University of Vienna. He studied papers, too, are classic reference works in the litera- the meromictic lakes of southern Austria, including ture. Langsee, with the help of Findenegg, and also In addition to his own research, Frey has con- Schleinsee, in southern Germany, with the help of tributed to paleolimnology by assisting graduate Kriegsmann . As a result of the peace treaty negoti- students. He has supervised the paleolimnological ations, the Frey family was finally allowed to travel work of 14 of his own students and served on the to Lunz, after having lived in Austria for six thesis committees of many others . Many of these months. In Lunz, they spend the month of April students are working in major North American with the Ruttner family. universities, actively publishing on the paleolimnol- Upon looking at the pollen in the Langsee core, ogy of North America and Europe . In this way, too, Frey also noticed many small bits of chitin that nei- Dr. Frey's influence on the science is far reaching . ther he, nor anyone he showed them to, could iden- As we are here at the Fourth International Sympo- tify. Finally, at the British Museum, J. P. Harding sium on Paleolimnology, we should remember that suggested that these might be the remains of Frey was a primary organiser of the First and Sec- Cladocera, and indeed they were. Identifying these ond International Symposia, in Hungary and Po- remains in the sediments led to Frey's dominant, land, respectively. It is fitting to tell you of some of lifelong research interests: paleolimnology and the the other honors David Frey has received, as we Cladocera, especially the family Chydoridae, whose honor him today. As mentioned earlier, he received remains are the most abundant animal microfossils the Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowship to Aus- in the sediments . Frey was, in essence, the first per- tria. In 1980, at the 21st Congres of the Internation- son to show the utility of cladoceran remains in the al Association of Limnology in Kyoto, Japan, Dr. sediments as a paleolimnological tool. Frey was awarded the Einar Nauman/August Cladoceran remains are found in the sediments Thienemann Medal. This award is only given to as the disarticulated components of the animals, one person each year, and in the 47 years since its and because of this, their identification requires inception, David Frey was but the fourth scientist close examination of many fine details not neces- from the United States to receive it . The citation sary for the identification of whole animals . After reads `De limnologia optime merito' for 'outstand- having familiarized himself with the fine details of ing research in paleolimnology and on the sys- the European Cladocera, Frey began examining the tematics and evolution of cladoceran zooplank- Cladocera of North America. In so doing, he ton' . recognized that the North American species were In 1982, Frey was elected a Foreign Member of not the same as their European counterparts, even the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, though they bore the same names . This heightened and in 1983, he was awarded the Distinguished his interest in the evolution and phylogeny of the Service Citation by the Ecological Society of Chydoridae. Frey realized that much time and care- America. Frey has also recently been appointed a ful attention would be required to straighten out Fullbright Professor at the University College of the taxonomic confusion existing in the literature . Dublin, Ireland, where he will spend this coming Of his over 150 publications, 56 concern the fall semester. Cladocera. Many of these describe new species and In addition to the above, Frey has served as a 3 visiting professor at the biological stations of the 1941 University of Virginia, University of Minnesota, Frey, D. G. & Lawrence Vike . A creel census on lakes Waubesa and Kegonsa, Wisconsin in 1939 . Trans. Wis . Acad . Sci . Arts. and the University of Michigan . He has been Dis- Lett . 33 : 339-362 . tinguished Visiting Professor at the Quaternary Re- search Center and the Department of Zoology at 1942 the University of Washington . There he taught a Frey, D. G . Studies on Wisconsin carp . 1 . Influence of age, size, course in paleolimnology. Frey has also taught a and sex on time of annulus formation by 1936 year class . Copeia 1942 (4) : 214-223 . course in paleolimnology at the University of Lund, Sweden, and has taught courses in tropical 1946 limnology in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Venezu- Frey, D . G. Oyster bars of the Potomac River. U.S . Fish Wildl . ela. He has worked as a consultant to the Ford Serv., Spec. Sci . Rept . 32 : 1-93 . Foundation in the Phillippines, to the U .S. Environ- 1947 mental Protection Agency, and was for four years Frey, D. G. The pond fisheries of the Philippines .

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