In Memoriam Ruth Patrick (1907–2013) Author(s): Robert McCracken Peck Source: The American Naturalist, Vol. 183, No. 2 (February 2014), pp. ii-iv Published by: University of Chicago Press for American Society of Naturalists Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/674825 Accessed: 26-01-2016 12:25 UTC
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In Memoriam Ruth Patrick (1907–2013) Dr. Ruth Patrick (1907–2013) probably needs no introduction to the readers of The American Naturalist or to anyone who has taken an interest in environmental matters over the past half century, because she has become so wellknown and so influential in her work with water as to become something of a household name. During her energetic and eventful 105 years, she authored or coauthored more than 200 scientific papers and dozens of books. Among the most influential of these are Diatoms of the United States, Groundwater Contamination in the United States, and Rivers of the United States. She received countless awards and more than 25 honorary degrees. The first woman to be elected president of the American Society of Naturalists (1975), she was made an honorary lifetime member of the society in 1988. I had the good fortune to know Dr. Patrick as a family friend for more than 50 years and to work with her at the Academy of Natural Sciences for more than 30. The line between these two relationships—personal and professional—was always delightfully blurry, not just for me but for everyone who ever knew or worked with her. In her private life, Ruth was engaged and passionate about her science, and in her professional career, she was warm and personable, treating her students and colleagues with respect, courtesy, and affection. It was her civility to one and all that endeared her to so many, while her brilliance and rigorous adherence to the most demanding scientific standards enabled her to achieve national and international acclaim. Her popular moniker the Den Mother of Ecology (coined some years ago by her friend E. O. Wilson at Harvard) reflects this seamless blending of warmth, humor, honesty, and intellectual rigor that made her such a beloved—and influential—figure in the world of science. Both encouraging and demanding in her expectations of scientific excellence, she served as an important role model for many women entering professional careers in science in the decades following World War II. Ruth Patrick was born on November 26, 1907, in Topeka, Kansas, where she received early inspiration in the natural sciences from her father, Frank Patrick, a lawyer, who used to take Ruth and her sister on weekend collecting forays to local streams and ponds and then analyze their aquatic discoveries through the brass microscope he kept on the desk in his study. After attending the Sunset Hill School for Girls (now Pembroke Hill School), Ruth received her undergraduate degree from Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina, in 1929. She went on to the
University of Virginia, where she earned her master’s and doctorate degrees, completing her PhD in 1934. Dr. Patrick’s dissertation was on the diversity and ecological significance of diatoms, the single-celled aquatic organisms to which her father had first introduced her. Her knowledge of diatoms and their role in aquatic ecosystems would become central to her professional career (photo 1). Ruth moved to Philadelphia in 1933 to have access to the Academy of Natural Sciences’ internationally renowned collection of diatoms. She worked with this collection as a volunteer for four years before receiving an unpaid academic appointment at the Academy in 1937. She did not receive a full-time salary from the institution for another eight years. The Academy of Natural Sciences (a part of Drexel University since 2011) would remain her professional home throughout her remarkable 80-year ca-
Photo 1: Ruth Patrick (1907–2013). Photo courtesy of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:25:21 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
reer. She was elected the first woman chair of the institution’s board of directors in 1973. In 1947, Dr. Patrick organized the Academy’s Limnology Department and launched the first in a series of pioneering studies of polluted streams and rivers (photo 2). Her use of diatoms as indicators of water quality and her insistence on looking at the entire ecosystem of a river in order to diagnose its health were among the hallmarks of her influential research. Her recognition that biological diversity is a critical indicator of environmental health has been dubbed the Patrick Principle by the conservation biologist Tom Lovejoy. Accepted today as a guiding principle in environmental science, the concept was new and still unproven when it was championed by Dr. Patrick in the 1940s. Informed by her study of aquatic systems, and employing her considerable charm and contagious enthusiasm for her subject, Dr. Patrick became an effective champion of clean water on a national level. She helped the U.S. Congress to develop the guidelines for the Clean Water Act (enacted in 1972) and worked tirelessly behind the scenes in Washington and elsewhere to shape other important pieces of environmental legislation. She served as a nonpartisan scientific advisor to almost every Congress
and every U.S. president from Lyndon Johnson to Ronald Reagan, with a particular focus on issues relating to the nation’s lakes, streams, and rivers. In 1996, President Bill Clinton publicly recognized her many contributions by presenting her with the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest honor in the field. When Ruth celebrated her one-hundredth birthday, the Academy of Natural Sciences hosted a tribute dinner for her in Philadelphia. It was attended by hundreds of friends and colleagues from around the world. At that time, I had the pleasure of reading through some of the hundreds of letters she received. There were letters from heads of state and scientific organizations, colleges, universities, and other learned institutions. There were letters from friends and family and professional colleagues of every sort. As impressive as all of these were—and they were very impressive indeed—the ones I found most heartwarming were the letters sent to her by schoolchildren and college students who had read of her achievements and were inspired by the story of her life. In this context, her election to the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences and her receipt of the John and Alice Tyler Ecology Award, the Mendel Medal, the Gold Medal from the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, the Gimbel
Photo 2: Ruth Patrick with her interdisciplinary river survey crew on the Guadalupe River in Texas in 1947. Left to right: John Wallace (algologist), Tom Dolan (entomologist), Ruth Patrick, Chuck Wurtz (invertebrate zoologist), Jackson Ward (chemist), John Cairns (protozoologist). Photo courtesy of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:25:21 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Award, the Philadelphia Award, and even the National Medal of Science pale by comparison to the heartfelt admiration and wide-eyed aspirations of young people just embarking on their own exciting lives of exploration and discovery. Ruth Patrick will long be remembered for her holistic approach to environmental studies, her successful efforts to mediate between science and industry, and her effective diplomacy in helping to shape government policy on the environment. She will also be remembered for her warmth, energy, humor, insight, generosity, and boundless curiosity.
In talking about her father, Ruth recalled that he had always urged her to leave the world a better place for having passed through it. In light of her many years of studying, explaining, and championing the health of freshwater systems around the world, there is little doubt that she fulfilled his wish.
Robert McCracken Peck, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:25:21 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
American Society of Naturalists and University of Chicago Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Naturalist.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:25:21 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
In Memoriam Ruth Patrick (1907–2013) Dr. Ruth Patrick (1907–2013) probably needs no introduction to the readers of The American Naturalist or to anyone who has taken an interest in environmental matters over the past half century, because she has become so wellknown and so influential in her work with water as to become something of a household name. During her energetic and eventful 105 years, she authored or coauthored more than 200 scientific papers and dozens of books. Among the most influential of these are Diatoms of the United States, Groundwater Contamination in the United States, and Rivers of the United States. She received countless awards and more than 25 honorary degrees. The first woman to be elected president of the American Society of Naturalists (1975), she was made an honorary lifetime member of the society in 1988. I had the good fortune to know Dr. Patrick as a family friend for more than 50 years and to work with her at the Academy of Natural Sciences for more than 30. The line between these two relationships—personal and professional—was always delightfully blurry, not just for me but for everyone who ever knew or worked with her. In her private life, Ruth was engaged and passionate about her science, and in her professional career, she was warm and personable, treating her students and colleagues with respect, courtesy, and affection. It was her civility to one and all that endeared her to so many, while her brilliance and rigorous adherence to the most demanding scientific standards enabled her to achieve national and international acclaim. Her popular moniker the Den Mother of Ecology (coined some years ago by her friend E. O. Wilson at Harvard) reflects this seamless blending of warmth, humor, honesty, and intellectual rigor that made her such a beloved—and influential—figure in the world of science. Both encouraging and demanding in her expectations of scientific excellence, she served as an important role model for many women entering professional careers in science in the decades following World War II. Ruth Patrick was born on November 26, 1907, in Topeka, Kansas, where she received early inspiration in the natural sciences from her father, Frank Patrick, a lawyer, who used to take Ruth and her sister on weekend collecting forays to local streams and ponds and then analyze their aquatic discoveries through the brass microscope he kept on the desk in his study. After attending the Sunset Hill School for Girls (now Pembroke Hill School), Ruth received her undergraduate degree from Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina, in 1929. She went on to the
University of Virginia, where she earned her master’s and doctorate degrees, completing her PhD in 1934. Dr. Patrick’s dissertation was on the diversity and ecological significance of diatoms, the single-celled aquatic organisms to which her father had first introduced her. Her knowledge of diatoms and their role in aquatic ecosystems would become central to her professional career (photo 1). Ruth moved to Philadelphia in 1933 to have access to the Academy of Natural Sciences’ internationally renowned collection of diatoms. She worked with this collection as a volunteer for four years before receiving an unpaid academic appointment at the Academy in 1937. She did not receive a full-time salary from the institution for another eight years. The Academy of Natural Sciences (a part of Drexel University since 2011) would remain her professional home throughout her remarkable 80-year ca-
Photo 1: Ruth Patrick (1907–2013). Photo courtesy of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:25:21 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
reer. She was elected the first woman chair of the institution’s board of directors in 1973. In 1947, Dr. Patrick organized the Academy’s Limnology Department and launched the first in a series of pioneering studies of polluted streams and rivers (photo 2). Her use of diatoms as indicators of water quality and her insistence on looking at the entire ecosystem of a river in order to diagnose its health were among the hallmarks of her influential research. Her recognition that biological diversity is a critical indicator of environmental health has been dubbed the Patrick Principle by the conservation biologist Tom Lovejoy. Accepted today as a guiding principle in environmental science, the concept was new and still unproven when it was championed by Dr. Patrick in the 1940s. Informed by her study of aquatic systems, and employing her considerable charm and contagious enthusiasm for her subject, Dr. Patrick became an effective champion of clean water on a national level. She helped the U.S. Congress to develop the guidelines for the Clean Water Act (enacted in 1972) and worked tirelessly behind the scenes in Washington and elsewhere to shape other important pieces of environmental legislation. She served as a nonpartisan scientific advisor to almost every Congress
and every U.S. president from Lyndon Johnson to Ronald Reagan, with a particular focus on issues relating to the nation’s lakes, streams, and rivers. In 1996, President Bill Clinton publicly recognized her many contributions by presenting her with the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest honor in the field. When Ruth celebrated her one-hundredth birthday, the Academy of Natural Sciences hosted a tribute dinner for her in Philadelphia. It was attended by hundreds of friends and colleagues from around the world. At that time, I had the pleasure of reading through some of the hundreds of letters she received. There were letters from heads of state and scientific organizations, colleges, universities, and other learned institutions. There were letters from friends and family and professional colleagues of every sort. As impressive as all of these were—and they were very impressive indeed—the ones I found most heartwarming were the letters sent to her by schoolchildren and college students who had read of her achievements and were inspired by the story of her life. In this context, her election to the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences and her receipt of the John and Alice Tyler Ecology Award, the Mendel Medal, the Gold Medal from the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, the Gimbel
Photo 2: Ruth Patrick with her interdisciplinary river survey crew on the Guadalupe River in Texas in 1947. Left to right: John Wallace (algologist), Tom Dolan (entomologist), Ruth Patrick, Chuck Wurtz (invertebrate zoologist), Jackson Ward (chemist), John Cairns (protozoologist). Photo courtesy of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:25:21 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Award, the Philadelphia Award, and even the National Medal of Science pale by comparison to the heartfelt admiration and wide-eyed aspirations of young people just embarking on their own exciting lives of exploration and discovery. Ruth Patrick will long be remembered for her holistic approach to environmental studies, her successful efforts to mediate between science and industry, and her effective diplomacy in helping to shape government policy on the environment. She will also be remembered for her warmth, energy, humor, insight, generosity, and boundless curiosity.
In talking about her father, Ruth recalled that he had always urged her to leave the world a better place for having passed through it. In light of her many years of studying, explaining, and championing the health of freshwater systems around the world, there is little doubt that she fulfilled his wish.
Robert McCracken Peck, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:25:21 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
