1966]

LAWRENCE A. $CHAAL HONORED

299

L A W R E N C E A. SCHAAL H O N O R E D At the recent meeting of The Potato Association of America, at Fort Collins, Colorado, Lawrence A. Schaal was given Honorary Life Membership in the Association. Larry was born October 19, 1900, in Manhattan, Kansas, and was farm-reared. After graduation from high school in his home town, he chose as his life's work a career in plant science. His education encompassed a B.S. degree from Kansas State University in 1924 in Agricultural

300

AMERICAN POTATO JOURNAL

[Vol. 43

Economics and Plant Pathology, and an M.S. degree (1926) and a Ph.D. degree (1941) in Plant Pathology and Entomology - - both from the University of Minnesota. At the start of a career of 40 or more years of service in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Dr. Schaal was Field Assistant in Cereals Investigations, engaged in barberry surveys in several mid-western states. In 1930 he took charge of Potato Disease Investigations at the U.S.D.A. Potato Station, Greeley, Colorado. Here he conducted field studies on potato varieties and diseases under irrigated conditions. Among his main contributions during the ensuing years were his investigations on physiological aspects, insect relationships, a n d inheritance of resistance to the scab organism together with allied chemical studies with the same organism. One of these studies correlated scab resistance with chlorogenic-acid content in tubers. He established further evidence of the existence of physiologic races of scab. In his scab-resistance work Dr. Schaal, with G. Johnson, investigated the inhibitory effect of phenolic compounds in the developmerit of resistance to scab. In aspects of potato production, in cooperation with breeders, Dr. Schaal participated in the introduction of the Yampa, Blanca, Pawnee, Osage and Navajo potato varieties that possess scab resistance. He was co-author of a Farmers' Bulletin on Potato Production in the Western States and has published a total of fifty four papers. In the latter years of his career Larry was superintendent of operations at the U. S. Horticultural Field Station at Cheyenne, Wyoming. He supervised the operations of the staff at that station in their research on vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, and windbreaks. In October 1964, Dr. Schaal retired after forty years of Federal service and is now living in Durango, Colorado, enjoying his retirement as a landscape consultant. Presented by William G. Hoyman Material prepared by Muriel O'Brien