HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS

RESEARCH-LOVING EMERITI STILL WORK IN THE LAB

TO CAL AND CNR:THANKS FOR THE GREAT EDUCATION

A chance laboratoryarrangement more than 50 years ago led to scientific collaboration and a lifelong friendship between emeritus professors James Vlamis (above, left) and Robert Raabe.

Although theywere in different departments, Raabeís plant pathologylab adjoined Vlamisísoil science lab. Raabe, Vlamis recalled, ìis about the friendliest guyI know, and graduallyhe found out what I was working on, and I found out what he was working on.î

Their work fit together like seeds in a pod, Raabe focusing on plant diseases and Vlamis studying the soil chemistrythat affected plant health. Theycollaborated on manyprojects over the years, such as one studythat revealed the cause of a chrysanthemum disease known as red root. Other scientists suspected a pathogen, but Vlamisíand Raabeís work showed it was due to excess soil in the irrigation water.

Both men are still familiar faces at the Collegeís greenhouse at the Oxford Tract. ìWeíre both crazy,îRaabe jokes, ìbecause weíve been retired for years, and we both still come to work everyday.î ìThereís nothing better than finding out something newand interesting all the time,îRaabe said. óKellyHill

Theysaytheir reasons are simple, and the same. ìWe like what we do,îVlamis said. Raabeís lifelong love of plants stems from a $1.25 mail order package of 37 plants that, as a young boy, he ordered after hearing a radio advertisement. Most of the plants, Raabe recalled, were common onesóexcept for two gladiola seeds. One died. The other bloomed so magnificently that it inspired his lifelong love of plants. ìIt was taller than I was, and it was a beautiful red spikeóand I was hooked,îhe said.

Vlamis not onlytaught at the College, he was a student here, earning a B.S. in Forestryin 1935 and a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology in 1941. He discovered soil science while studying for his undergraduate degree in forestry. Dr. Alva Davis, the late plant nutrition and botanyprofessor, and Dr. Dennis Hoagland, late professor of agricultural chemistry, inspired him to pursue the field of plant nutrition.

While theywere teaching, Raabe and Vlamis together with D.E. Williams offered a class on urban garden ecosystems that showed students the basics of gardening. And after long and successful careers, Raabe, now79, and Vlamis, now89, still find their respective fields exciting.

While reading your fall 2003 edition and a recent UC alumni publication, I noticed a comment of a recent graduate that she had enrolled at Cal as a freshman in spite of the warnings of ìtoo big, too impersonal,î and found Cal to be quite the opposite.

I have reflected upon myown experiences at Cal in the College of Agriculture (nowCNR) and the Berkeleycampus. In those days (1938-1941) the Department of Plant Pathologywas headed byMax Gardner, who also taught an upper division class in diseases of vegetables and field crops. As months and years went by, he was not onlythe professor, he became an important advisor and a good and valued friend.

We visited the greenhouses of HenrySeverens and Julius Freitag, pioneers in the studyof virus transmission byleafhoppers. Our exposure in other departments included classes with E. O. Essig (Insects of Western North America) and Dr. Lee Bonar (Botany), world renowned mycologist.

In other undergraduate courses: Physics 2AB included in the curriculum three lectures on atomic energybyE. O. Lawrence. Our section leader was William Fretter, who later became Vice Chancellor. Wendell Stanleyvisited the campus in 1938, and before an overflowcrowd in Wheeler Auditorium, projected photomicrographs of tobacco mosaic particles, the first ever seen. Additionally, classes on economic theorybyJames Bennett and SidneyHoos (Giannini Foundation) and Agricultural Labor Economics byPaul Taylor (Economics) were included.

All in all, a veryimpressive group of professors for one who turned out to be a fertilizer salesman! Was Cal too big and impersonal? Not for me! I have treasured this exposure and education!

Sincerely,

Robert Brownscombe, í41, B.S., Plant Pathology