In Memoriam: Warren O. Nelson, April 16, 1906—October 18, 1964

Abstract

IN MEMORIAM Warren O. Nelson, April 16, 1906—October 18, 1964* TO A FRIEND We are gathered here to pay a briefvalediction to a mutual friend. On this occasion I cannot but speak in personal terms. I knew him well enough to know that nothing would be more distasteful to him than public sentimentality on this occasion. Nevertheless , disdainful as he may have been of sentimentality, sentiment he himself felt—deep, moving, loyal and true—and ofsuch were the foundations for his uniquely strong character . Those ofus who knew him well and enjoyed his friendship would be less than true if wefailedto express, inadequate though ourmeans may be, ourdeep-felt sentimentstoday. Warren Nelson was born on April 16, 1906, in Moline, Illinois. His early years were spent inTexas and Oklahoma. After his father's death hewent tohigh school inWisconsin. In his later years, as he traveled widely, and was known and welcomed in all world capitals, he still bore proudly the stamp, the character, and the accent of the plains and frontier ofthis nation—a frontier that furnished many men to our academic life and the science ofEndocrinology in particular. Concerning him it might be said, as was recently said ofanother, "The hill country of Texas is a stern adversary, giving grudgingly ofitselfonly to the most determined. . . . Here at the grass roots ofAmerica, where the soil is meager and the sun is hot, he learned about life and about people." Being born with no silver spoon in his mouth, he compensated by relentless hard work. Except for rare intervals, this work never ceased. It was his great good fortune, and essential to his own happiness, that he was able to continue working until the last moments ofhis life. For the short periods, however, in which work was put aside, this too was thoroughly done. Sports ofany kind provided strong competition for the urge to work, and he leaves us all fond memories ofgay and relaxed evenings at many times and places. His higher academic work started at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, in 1924. There he came under the influence ofone ofthose great small-college teachers, Professor Harold Yingling, who directed his interests toward the biological sciences. He emerged with a degree in 1928 and soon was engulfed in the great depression, during which for him, as for his contemporaries, the going was hard. * From the Memorial Service held in Rensselaer, New York, October 21, 1064. 409 But on small resources he started graduate work at the University of Iowa, where W. W. Swingle was rejuvenating a department. When that group broke up, he moved to New York University with the late Hans Haterius and with Harry Charipper. There he received his Ph.D. From there he went to the University of Chicago for postgraduate work with Carl Moore. Then came his first staffappointment, at the University ofMissouri with Milton Overholser, and the next one at Yale under Edgar Allen. This list ofteachers is itselfsomething ofa galaxy ofworld Endrocrinology—but in every institution in which he learned, he contributed as well—a steady stream ofbasic sound research. This led to a Professorship at Wayne University and later, full cycle turned, back to Iowa. Perhaps his greatest institutional achievement, accomplished at a time when the need was great, was the magnificent world-wide medical program he set up for the study of population problems under the auspices ofthe Population Council. This blooms now as a great and forceful world effort at a time ofemergency. The shock felt by all ofus today is particularly acute among the many students and protégés, American and foreign, who at one time or another worked with him. For them he found plenty oftime at any cost, and through them his techniques, philosophies, and high standards write broadly the record oftheir beginnings. The work ofsuch a man is never done, but the main unfinishedjob was the one he left here—for he certainly had a great role to play in the development ofthe new Institute with which he was briefly associated in Albany. I will not dwell on the many honors, honorary offices, honorary degrees, and so forth which he held—through which world-wide...