Volume 24 · Number 3 · Spring 2007
In Memoriam
Richard Bohart
Richard Bohart, a professor emeritus of entomology known worldwide for his expertise on wasps and mosquitoes, died in February in Berkeley after a long illness. He was 93. A faculty member during 1946–1980, he identified more than 1 million mosquitoes and wasps, many displayed at campus Bohart Museum of Entomology, which he founded. He authored 230 separate publications, and wrote six books on mosquitoes and wasps. In 2006, Bohart received the International Society of Hymenopterists Distinguished Research Medal, one of three ever awarded. More...
John De Groot, professor emeritus of applied science, died of liver cancer in January in Davis at age 72. A faculty member in 1969–1994, he was recalled from retirement in 1999 for a two-year stint as department vice chair. During this time, he worked to establish the undergraduate optics program and the computational engineering science major. After returning to emeritus status, he continued part-time research on thermonuclear fusion. More...
Cadet Hand Jr.
Cadet Hand Jr., a renowned zoologist and founding director of the Bodega Marine Laboratory, died of cancer in November at his Salmon Creek home at age 86. While a UC Berkeley faculty member his entire 1953–85 academic career, he was well known to many UC Davis faculty and students who studied marine biology at the lab, which opened in 1966 and transferred to UC Davis administration in 1983. An expert taxonomist and authority on sea anemones and other invertebrates, he maintained a research lab at Bodega until 2003. The lab library was named for him in 1996. He helped establish an aquaculture research program with UC Davis. More...
F. Howard Kratzer, professor emeritus of avian science, died in October in his Davis home from pancreatic cancer. He was 88. A faculty member in 1945–83 and avian sciences department chair in 1976–81, he published more than 200 journal articles and received numerous honors for his research on poultry nutrition. He was also an active supporter of the International House and helped establish a scholarship for UC Davis avian-science majors. More...
A. Doyle Reed, a Cooperative Extension economist and agricultural economics lecturer in 1948–82, died in December in San Rafael at age 90. He specialized in farm management and rural appraisal.
Victor Rendig, a professor emeritus of soils and plant nutrition and soils chemist, died in November in Davis at age 87. An expert on relationships between soils and plant nutrition, he served as chair of the former Department of Soils and Plant Nutrition as well as the plant physiology graduate group during his 1949–88 UC Davis career. His wife, Rosemary, who had been active in the University Farm Circle, died in January. She was 84. More...
Donald Rothchild
Donald Rothchild, a political science professor and Africa expert who devoted his career to developing solutions to ethnic and civil strife in the world, died in January due to complications from lymphoma. He was 78. A faculty member since 1965, he also was a guest researcher at top-level think tanks, visiting teacher at the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins and at various African universities, and participated in United Nations conferences. Other honors include being named 1996–97 UC Davis Faculty Research Lecturer, a 1994–95 fellow in the Jennings Randolph Program for International Peace at the U.S. Institute of Peace and, in 2003, a UC Distinguished Professor. More...
Paul Stumpf
Paul Stumpf, a professor emeritus of molecular and cellular biology who pioneered studies of plant lipid biochemistry, died in February in Davis at age 87. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and co-author of several major textbooks. He joined the faculty in 1958, helping to establish the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, which he chaired four times. He served on the campus planning committee during a period of explosive growth in the 1960s. After retiring in 1984, he became founding president of the UC Davis Emeriti Association and, with his wife, established an endowed chair in the College of Biological Sciences. More...
David Volman, professor emeritus of chemistry, died in January in Washington D.C., following a brief illness at age 90. He was a faculty member from 1940 to 1986, with an interruption in 1941–46 to work as a research chemist for the World War II-era U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development. In 1970, at a campus meeting, he presented a statement signed by about 200 faculty members opposing the Vietnam war and the invasion of Cambodia. He chaired the chemistry department from 1974 to 1980. He retired in 1986 but continued to conduct research with his colleagues until 2005. More...
Shang Fa Yang, a professor emeritus of plant sciences whose research unlocked the key to prolonging freshness in fruits and flowers, died in February in Davis from complications of pneumonia. He was 74. An expert on the plant hormone ethylene and its important role in agriculture, he was a faculty member during 1966–94 and was elected in 1990 to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors for scientists in the United States. More...