Dr. Max William Gardner (born 1890)
Children include Dr. Murray Briggs Gardner (born 1945)
Max W. Gardner, Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Berkeley, died of a heart attack in Berkeley, October 31, 1979.
He was born May 11, 1890, at Lansing, Michigan. He early became interested in nature. From 1904 to 1911 he kept an extensive diary of his field observations, recently typed and bound in four volumes by his grandson, William Gardner Schottstaedt. Birds were a primary interest throughout his life. He learned to identify them by their songs, flight patterns, and behavior as well as appearance. At Michigan Agricultural College, now Michigan State University, he received a BS degree in forestry in 1912 and an honorary Sc.D. in 1950.
His first professional job was with the pennsylvania Chestnut Blight Commission in Philadelphia, where he worked with F. D. Heald, who encouraged him to take graduate work under L. R. Jones at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he received the MS degree in 1915 and the PhD in 1918. From 1914 to 1919 he worked intermittently with the U. S. Office of Truck Crop Diseases with G. K. K. Link. His first academic position was as instructor in Botany at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1917-1918. In 1919, he moved to the Department of Botany in the Experiment Station at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, where he became chief of Botany. In 1932, hejoined the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Berkeley and Davis, where he succeeded R. E. Smith as Chairman, in 1936. After retiring from this position in 1957, his continuing professional interests were in building the reprint collection of the U. C. Berkeley Plant Pathology Library, which now included 75,947 items. He also collected powdery mildews, many of which had not been previously described in the USA.
The major plant diseases on which he worked were: chestnut blight, market diseases, cucumber anthracnose (PhD thesis), angular leaf spot of cucumber, lightning injury, soybean mosiac, turnip mosaic, tomato mosaic, apple-blotch, downy mildew of turnip, bacterial spot of tomato, root knot, potato leaf roll, Cladosporium leaf spot of cowpea, Sportrichium fruit spot of apple, apple sooty blotch, spotted wilt virus, Rhizoctonia bataticola, bacterial leaf spot of primula, Phytophthora on cauliflower, black ring virus of cabbage, garlic rust, carrot root scab, Phytophthora on Solanum, bacterial blight of bean, apple scab, Pierce's disease of grapes, scab of pyracantha, and powdery mildews.
He was author or co-author of some 180 scientific publications. His associates in research in approximate chronological order included: F. D. Heald, R. D. Studhalter, L. R. Jones, W. W. Gilbert, G. K. K. Link, J. B. Kendrick, Sr., H. S. Jackson, H. D. Brown, L. Greene, C. E. Baker, F. P. Cullinan, P. H. Brewer, H. R. Kraybill, L. C. Cochran, C. L. Burkholder, R. W. Sampson, H. E. White, E. B. Mains, J. J. Davis, C. M. Tompkins, 0. C. Whipple, C. M. Tucker, B. L. Richards, P. A. Ark, H. R. Thomas, J. T. Middleton, C. E. Yarwood, A. E. Michelbacker, Ray F. Smith, P. G. Smith, E. B. Babcock, R. E. Smith, E. E. Wilson, R. D. Raabe, H. Kern, P. D. Caldis, T. Duafala, C. J. Krass, and W. N. Takahashi.
Although Dr. Gardner contributed significantly through his personal research, he was, I believe, even more interested in helping younger colleagues. I can testify to this quality, having been one of his first graduate students and a close associate for 50 years. His initiation of a graduate studies program in plant pathology at Purdue and his teaching at Berkeley, where his major formal course was on diseases of truck crops, are further evidence of this. He graciously shared his knowledge and inspired in his friends and family a love and respect for nature.
He served on many university and national committees including the Division for Biology and Agriculture of the National Research Council. He was a life member of the American Phytopathological Society, serving as vice-president in 1930, president in 1931, and journal editor in 1959-1964. He was also a member of the Botanical Society of America, the Mycological Society of America, the American Society of Naturalists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Michigan Academy of Science, the Indiana Academy of Science, Gamma Alpha, and Sigma Xi.
In 1922, he married Margaret Briggs, then Deputy State Chemist at Purdue University. With his wife, he often entertained associates and students at their home at 1441 Hawthorne Terrace, Berkeley. He is also survived by a daughter, Mary Frances Schottstaedt, M.D., who was University of California Scholarship Medalist in 1945 and is now Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston; and a son, Murray Briggs Gardner, M.D., Professor of Pathology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine; and eight grandchildren.
Dr. Gardner was a kind, sensible, tolerant man with a delightful sense of humor who enjoyed lasting friendships with people in all walks of life.
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University of California: In Memoriam, 1980
Max William Gardner, Plant Pathology: Berkeley and Davis
1890-1979
Professor Emeritus
Max Gardner was a leading personality in the field of plant pathology in the United States from about 1928 until he retired in 1957. He was born in 1890 in Lansing, Michigan, where his father was a druggist. He early became interested in nature and from the age of fourteen to twenty-one kept an extensive diary of his observations, primarily of birds. This diary, in four volumes, has been typed and bound by his grandson, William Gardner Schottstaedt.
At Michigan Agricultural College, now Michigan State University, he received a B.S. degree in forestry in 1912 and an honorary Sc.D. in 1950.
His first professional job was with the Pennsylvania Chestnut Blight Commission in Philadelphia, where he worked with F. D. Heald who encouraged him to take graduate work in plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, under L. R. Jones.
Here he received the M.S. degree in 1915 and the Ph.D. in 1918. During these years he worked intermittently with the U.S. Office of Truck Crop Diseases with G. K. Link.
His first academic position was as instructor in botany at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1917-18. In 1919 he moved to the department of Botany at the Agricultural Experiment Station of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, under H. S. Jackson. He became chief of Botany and initiated the first graduate work in plant pathology there in 1929. In 1932 he joined the Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Berkeley and Davis, where he succeeded R. E. Smith as chairman in 1936.
After he arrived in California one of his principal research projects was a study of an epidemic of the virus disease of tomatoes, lettuce, and other truck crops. Ornamental plants were also attacked and Dr. Gardner identified the cause as the spotted-wilt virus. He became an authority on this virus and helped to work out its symptomatology, epidemiology, its spread by thrips, and its eventual control. The study of this disease in the field uncovered other diseases which he encouraged his younger staff to investigate.
Max Gardner was a firm believer in the importance of field experience in the training of plant pathologists. He instituted the first formal field
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course in the department. Here he inspired much enthusiasm in the students for detecting and diagnosing diseases of field and truck crops and later, of all crops.
Approximately half of the course was devoted to field observations and to collecting diseased plants and half to studying and culturing the pathogens in the laboratory. He was a superb diagnostician. Growers and pathologists had a high regard for his judgment. He had a contagious enthusiasm for scientific observation. For example, he enjoyed showing others how he looked for fungus on plants.
He served on many professional committees including the Division of Biology and Agriculture of the National Research Council. He was a life member of the American Phytopathological Society, serving as vice president in 1930, president in 1931, and editor of Phytopathology from 1959 to 1964. He was author or co-author of 180 publications.
In administration he tried to follow the dictum of his superior, Dean C. B. Hutchison, who advised: “Choose good men, give them good facilities, and leave them alone.”
After his retirement in 1957 he continued his professional interest by building up the separates collection in the Plant Pathology Library. This collection became one of the finest in the country. It attracted pathologists from other parts of the world who were writing books. It is one of his lasting contributions to the Department.
Max continued to aid and encourage his younger colleagues. He was noted for his kindly concern for the interests of all his friends. For example, he returned to his earlier interest in birds. He could identify them by songs, behavior, and habitat and was often asked for help in identification.
His broad interest in biology took him into the field right up to the last. One of his favorite outings was to the U.C. Botanical Garden where he went at least once a week for many years. He liked to observe seasonal changes in plants, and he collected powdery mildews (Erysiphaceae), many of which were new to the United States.
From early in his life Max Gardner took delight in collecting Indian artifacts, especially arrowheads. He had hundreds, mostly from fields in Indiana.
His wide reading extended to such works as Irving Stone's The Greek Treasure, James Westfall Thompson's books on medieval history, and Charles M. Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta.
In 1922 he married Margaret Briggs, a minister's daughter who was then deputy state chemist at Purdue University. They had two children, Mary Frances Schottstaedt and Murray Briggs Gardner. The former was University of California Scholarship Medalist in 1945 and now is associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas medical branch in Galveston. Murray is professor of pathology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine.
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Max and Margaret furthered the social life of the department by entertaining associates and students in their lovely home at 1441 Hawthorne Terrace, Berkeley.
Max died of a heart attack October 31, 1979. His younger brother, a professor of electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also died in 1979.
Dr. Gardner is survived by his wife, his two children, and eight grandchildren.
C. E. Yarwood W. Bingham W. C. Snyder