University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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n (illcmortam i Ray Ethan Torrey M.A. PhD On January 16, 1956, the University of Massachusetts lost one of its great professors and the country one of its most stimulating teachers of botany. Dr. Ray Ethan Torrey was born in the very shadows of the University at North Leverett in December, 1887 - and he spent his boyhood in the Amherst country. Later, he came to the University, where he was awarded a B.S. degree in 1912. He then went on to Harvard University for graduate work in botany where he studied under the great plant anatomist, Professor E. C. Jeffrey. Harvard awarded Torrey an M.A. in 1916 and a Ph. D. in 1918. He taught at Grove City College and at Wesleyan for a few years before returning (in 1919) to Massachusetts, where he spent the rest of his life, indeed, rarely if ever, leaving the environs of Amherst. He was promoted through the various academic ranks, culminating in 1937 in his appointment to a full professorship.

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Published by the student body of the UNIVERSITY of MASSACHUSETTS

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The thousands of Massachusetts st udents who took Dr. Torrey ' s general botany course will never forget that experience. He lectured at breakneck speed, hardly pausing to execute his su- perb blackboard drawings. He taught his students botany, but he did more than that - he sought to awaken their sluggish minds in the hope that this would awaken their even more sluggish spirits. His method was to disturb, to startle, and to shock the complacent and the cock-sure. He was for- ever pointing to the larger significance of biological facts and principles. He stimulated his students to think, and they thus found that his course was one of the most liberating experiences of their college careers. Although he probed into the philosophical and the metaphysical, he recognized the place of humor. Somehow he conveyed to all the standards of a gentleman and many were inspired by his high example. In his laboratory classes he used the Socratic method as he taught botany in the great tradition of Asa Gray and Jeffrey. He was a remarkably success- ful teacher, as is attested by the enthusiasm of hordes of former students and by the scores of students he attracted to botany - Degner of Hawaii, Drew of Michigan State, Andrews of Washing- ton University, Steeves of Harvard, Hall of Minnesota, Moseley of California, Swansonof Hopkins, Church of Brown, Delevoryas of Michigan State, Delisle of Notre Dame, Hunt of Antioch, O ' Mara of Iowa State, Woodworth of Bennington, and a host of others. His textbook of general botany, a classic in its field, was widely adopted. He gave two elegant advanced courses - systematic botany of the Angiosperms and com- parative anatomy of the green plants. These were superbly organized and they were kept up to date by revisions which were constantly being inserted, sometimes just a few minutes before lecture time. The hundreds of charts he carefully prepared for these courses were works of art. Few of his former general botany students knew that Torrey had published several classic papers in the field of plant morphology and phylogeny. Some of these students had occasion to read these papers in later life, and they marveled at the penetration of thought, the beauty of style, and the artistry of the illustrations. They then realized that Torrey could have been a great scientist - a great investigator - had he chosen that path. In spite of turning his back on original research, Torrey had few peers in comparative anatomy and plant phylogeny. In addition, he was a remarkably competent taxonomist. Long after his former students forget the botany they learned at his feet, they will recall the philosophical jwinciples he espoused. He labored mightily to reveal the true philosophical nature of science - its inner significance and its limitations. He led his students from science to philo- sophy -and a few to the realm of metaphysics. There were always a few select individuals - some botanists, a few English majors and others - who were invited to his famous Friday evening seminars where there were fwofound and animated discussions of philosophy, religion, literature, art and music. These fortunate few will never forget the stimulus of these discussions - the sti- mulus to independent thinking and to independent reading and study. What was the substance of Torrey ' s teaching? The limits of space prevent an adequate sum- mary, but one quotation from his Science and Its Ftinction in Education should be recorded here: In each one of us undreamed-of powers lie asleep, and when these powers are awakened in- to activity they will lead us to ' heights we never dreamed of scaling. ' Searching the depths of our own natures we shall find power, wisdom and joy. Searching outer nature we shall unlock her secrets learning ' how she made the rocks and rivers, the stars and the ever-moving sea. ' This is the doctrine of the soul and its immortality; it visages the ' far-off, divine event toward which the whole creation moves ' .... Nothing less than the realization of a transcendental self will ever content us and to this splendid purpose all lesser things are to be made subservient and contri- butory. This, as I see it, is the purpose of life, collect - ' e as well as individual - of your life and of mine .... The real purpose of the college and the only basis on which it can justify its ex- istence before the stern tribunal of Truth is to train men in body, heart and mind for this ancient quest. Sciences, humanitites, arts - what are they all but the armor with which the college equips its youth for the glorious and supremely dangerous adventure! Thus taught Ray Ethan Torrey, gifted botanist and dedicated theosophist. IP CTJ Oswald Tippo ' 32 i Eaton Professor of Botany Chairman, Botany Department Yale University