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Harry R. Wellman, who interrupted his retirement to serve as acting UC president from 1967 to 1968, died Aug. 18 at the age of 93. Memorial services will be held Aug. 30 at 2 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. Known by colleagues as a "quiet facilitator," Wellman started work at the university in 1925 as an extension specialist in agricultural economics and played a key role in the shifting of most administrative authority from the president's office to the campuses. The campus's Wellman Hall was named for him in 1967. "Throughout his long and distinguished career as an agricultural economist and university administrator, Harry Wellman's name was synonymous with the highest standards of integrity, skill and service to the university and to California agriculture. Both have lost a dedicated steward and a faithful friend," said C. Judson King, UC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. "Harry was not a dramatic person doing dramatic things," said former UC President Clark Kerr. "He was a quiet facilitator, who was able, by friendly persuasion, to impact the university in a quiet effective way." Born in Alberta, Canada, on March 4, 1899, Wellman received his bachelor of science degree from the Oregon Agricultural College in 1921. He received his master's degree in 1924 and his PhD degree in 1926 from Berkeley. In 1960, he was awarded an honorary law degree from Oregon State University. "Wellman was very influential in keeping agriculture moving ahead in the state of California," Kerr said. Following a reorganization of administrative offices in 1958, Wellman was named to the newly created post of vice president of the university, serving as second in command to President Kerr. Wellman officially retired from the university in 1966, with titles of vice president emeritus of the university, professor emeritus of agricultural economics and agricultural economist emeritus in the agricultural experiment station and Giannini Foundation. In addition to his service with the university, Wellman was chief of the general crop section of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration from 1934 to 1935. He was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 1943 to 1954. He was also a member of the California Board of Agriculture. Wellman's scholarly work centered on price analysis, marketing and agricultural policy, particularly in relationship to California fruit and vegetable crops. He is survived by his daughter, Nancy Jane Parmelee, son-in-law Robert Parmelee, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, gifts should be made to the Harry R. Wellman Fund for Support of Graduate Students in Natural Resource Economics, or to the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Samuel P. Welles, who from 1931 until his retirement in 1974 was employed as a vertebrate paleontologist in the Museum of Paleontology, died Wednesday, Aug. 6, in San Mateo. He was 89. Welles was born in Gloucster, Mass. and came to Berkeley in 1911 with his parents. He graduated from Berkeley High School and then went on to Berkeley, where he received his BA in political science and history in 1930 and a doctorate in paleontology in 1940. Welles served in the museum from 1930 until his retirement in 1974. He was involved in 30 summer fossil collecting expeditions in western North America. During this work he found many important and unique fossils. Among others, he collected and described a huge pleisiosaur from the Panoche Hills west of Fresno, which he named Hydrotherosaurus alexandrae, in honor of Miss Annie Alexander, benefactress of the museum's endowment. In 1942, he discovered, collected and described the only known skeletons of Dilophosaurus wetherilli, the poison-spitting dinosaur featured in "Jurassic Park." He was also instrumental in the development of Nevada's Berlin-Ichthysaur State Park. After his retirement, Welles continued as a research associate in the museum, where his main interests included the labyrinthodont amphibians, marine reptiles and theopod dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Age, on which he wrote many scientific articles and books. Until the onset of his illness earlier this year, he spent a large portion of each day in the Museum of Paleontology studying dinosaurs. He was particularly concerned with field work so that fossils could be collected before they were destroyed by erosion. He is survived by his wife, Anouchka, of Berkeley; sons S. Paul Welles Jr. of Redwood City and John D. Welles of Martinez; and daughter Ruth Giles of San Mateo. The Museum of Paleontology will celebrate Welles' life in the near future with a reception and a special issue of the museum's newsletter. Memorial donations may be made to the Doris and Samuel P. Welles Fund
for Vertebrate Paleontology. Checks should be made out to the Regents of
the University of California, marked "for the Doris and S. P. Welles
Fund" and sent to the Museum of Paleontology, 1101 Valley Life Sciences,
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720. |