University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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BLUEd GOLD H AVING received his degree at the University of Maine, Elmer D. Merrill, present Dean of the College of Agriculture, attended George Washington University for a year. There he studied in the Department of Medicine. He was assistant in the natural sciences at the University of Maine for a year. After that, in 1902, he went to the Philip- pine Islands where he spent twenty-two years in botanical investigation. While there he was connected with the Bureau of Agriculture, and later he held a professorship at the Uni- versity of the Philippine Islands. During the last four years of his stay he was Director of the Bureau of Science in Manila, the institution in which all the scientific work of the Philip- pines is centralized. Dean Merrill is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Deutsche Botanische Geselschaft. This latter organization is a botanical society of high rank, and but four or five American botanists have had the honor of being elected to it. Merrill has written numerous articles on botany among these is a book on the Flora of the Philip- pine Islands, and an Enumeration of Bornean Plants. He was also editor of the Philippine Journal of Science. As Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the University experiment station, which positions Merrill accepted in 1923 upon his return from the tropics, he is responsible for the administra- tion of the entire College of Agriculture. This consists of the department of Berkeley, the branch at Davis and the University Experiment Station at Riverside, besides the Agr iculture Extension service. One of the most interesting of the recent developments at the experimental station, according to the Dean, is the culmination of the investigation on the reclaiming of alkaline soil. Experiment in this line has been carried on for many years and it has now been demonstrated that certain types of alkaline soil may be reclaimed. This fact will be found of great value to all agricultural interests, says Dean Merrill, and will probably result in the reclaiming of much land which is now useless. ELMER D. MERRILL DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE UNIVERSITY BOTANICAL GARDENS 28

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BLUE GOLD AER receiving his Ph. D. degree from the University of California in 1890, and his LL. B. in 1893, Orrin K. McMurray, Dean of the School of Jurisprudence, prac- ticed law in San Francisco for several years. Later he taught law at Hastings College of Law and in 1904 he became a mem- ber of the faculty here. Since then he has at different times been professor of law at the University of Michigan and again at Columbia University. In 1923 he was appointed Dean of the School of Jurisprudence at California. The School of Jurisprudence was established by an order of the Board of Regents in 1912. It offers a complete profes- sional course in law, as well as an opportunity to study the cultural aspects of our legal system. Opportunities for stu- dents are exceptional in both respects in this school. The school has a life of its own, centering in Boalt Hall, a hand- some building containing a law r library of more than 35,000 volumes, a large reading room, lecture rooms, offices, and rooms for students. Legal fraternities and similar associa- tions tend to foster the cooperative spirit which is so marked a feature of the school. The interest of the graduates is main- tained after leaving the school through the Alumni Association of the School of Jurisprudence, which has done much for its progress. The student body is at present almost entirely composed of graduates of the college of Letters and Science, or some other colleges whose degrees are recognized by this University. The maturity of the students and the standard of general education possessed by them make the School, it is believed, one of the strongest in the United States. The interest of the people of the State in the work which the school performs in educating the future leaders of our bench and bar is indicated by t he generosity of the endowments made by benefactors. The most recent is that made by Mrs. Clara Hellman Heller, who, during the past year, established the Emanuel S. Heller Chair of Law in honor of her husband. O K McMciRAY DEAN- OF THE SCHOOL or JUKISPKVDENCE EOALT HALL STEPS

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BLUEd GOLD FRANK PROBERT, Dean of the College of Mining is almost as well known to the general campus as to his own col- lege partly by virtue of the fact that he has been the principal speaker at the Freshman Rally since the death of Henry Morse Stephens. He has welcomed every freshman class for the last seven years. For the same length of time. Dean Probert has officiated over the transference of the guardianship of the Big C to the new Sophomore Class, a ceremony which takes place after the other exercises of Charter Day. Moreover, as Guardian of the Big C Society, the Dean as- sists in the initiation of all new members to that organization. In his own students, the Dean has taken an interest which has extended even beyond college days and problems, for most graduates of this school receive their first positions through his efforts. As a result of its fine work, the College of Mining has come to be recognized as outstanding so that the requests for its students is always in advance of the number which have graduated. There are at present one hundred fifty men enrolled here, with an ever increasing number doing graduate work. Of the types of work, mining and petroleum absorb eighty per cent of the enrollment. Practical work during the summer months is a requirement. Dean Probert received the degree of Associate of the Royal School of Mines in London in 1897. For twenty years he has been Dean of the College. During the years 1917-1919 Dean Probert was a member of the special commission on war minerals investigation for the United States Bureau of Mines, and later a member of the American mining mission to Europe for investigation of mineral industry and reparation in northern France. Among organizations to which Dean Probert belongs are the San Francisco Engineers, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, Golden Bear, Society of Winged Helmet, and Phi Phi. H. PEOBEKT DEAN or THE COLLEGE or MINING MINING STUDENTS AT Wor 29