James F. Crow, rest in peace

James F. Crow was a good man and a scientist. He passed away a few days ago. (Here is the obituary.) It was my privilege to have taken a class from him, and to serve as an instructor of what were called "quiz sections" under him, while a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, where Crow spent the great majority of his career. He was the leader of the Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) work group while I was at Wisconsin. However, he and his students made important contributions to human medical genetics, too.

Crow was known principally as a teacher, and he was a good one, bringing out the best in his graduate students, and in those he lectured to. He was multi-talented, though. He testified before at least one congressional committee. He wrote books and articles. He played the viola, and did it well. He was an able administrator. He worked with colleagues and graduate students from many nationalities.

Although he was an important person, he was humble, easily reachable, and sometimes serving as the butt of practical jokes. For example, some of his students etherized some fruit flies and put them in his viola, and, during a concert by the Madison symphony orchestra, the flies revived, and flew out of the instrument.

I was sorry to hear of his passing.

Not quite a century

My mother, Helen LaBar, would have been 100 years old today. She didn't quite make that milestone. Above is a photo of her sons (I am on the left, and I am the oldest) taken with her 95th birthday cake. At that time, she was living at home, with a little assistance.

All of us are products of our ancestors, one way or another. Sometimes, as in the neat freak who grew up in a messy house, we act opposite to our ancestors. I owe much of my love for music to my parents, my love of fantastic literature mostly to my father, my love of teaching mostly to my mother, and I won't bore you with any other characteristics, some of which may be all too apparent from reading this blog.

I posted Mom's obituary earlier, but I thought that another tribute would be in order.

Thanks for reading. The photo is a link to the on-line original. No password is needed to see it, or my 1400+ other Flickr photos, most of which are not of people.

Helen Mathews LaBar, 1910-2009

Helen LaBar was born in Fulton County, Indiana, May 4, 1910, to the late Arthur and Minnie Mathews, and passed away on October 26, 2009. The family moved to near Union City, Michigan, in 1914. She graduated from high school in Union City, and went to Albion and Ypsilanti Colleges, obtaining a teaching certificate in mathematics. She taught briefly in the Thumb area of Michigan, and also at Lincoln and Fox schools, one-room schools outside Union City, for five years. She returned to college, and graduated from Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana, in 1931. While there, she met William LaBar, from Huntington, Indiana. They were married June 10, 1937, and immediately moved to Sawyer County, Wisconsin. They soon occupied a log cabin, built by her husband, near the Yarnell community, and began to raise their family. They moved to a 200-acre farm, which they purchased, near Edgewater, in 1945.
In 1952, Mrs. LaBar started teaching high school English and Math at Birchwood, Wisconsin. She also served as interim principal. After her retirement in 1970, she became a volunteer in nursing homes, which she continued to do into her 90s, leading Bible studies and hymn-singing, first in Wisconsin, and, later, in Michigan. In 1984, she and her husband moved to Union City. Her husband preceded her in death on June 26, 1991.
The LaBars were active in the founding of Wayside Chapel church, near Edgewater, Wisconsin, which was on land they donated, and they continued to be active in that congregation until they moved to Michigan. She was active in the Union City United Methodist Church, and was also involved in home Bible studies in the area, most of them in her home. She also attended Union City Wesleyan church, and Coldwater Nazarene church. She was known as loving the Bible, reading it daily, and memorizing much of it, including the entire book of Mark.
Mrs. LaBar became known as the creator of rugs, woven from used woolen fabric, using an interweaved braiding technique that she originated. She made several hundred such rugs, gave demonstrations, and taught many others this skill.
She loved music, and was pianist for Wayside Chapel church for many years, and also occasionally played for the Methodist Church in Union City, in addition to playing in nursing homes. She also loved making and connecting with friends, her family, reading, crossword puzzles, Scrabble*, and flower gardening.
Survivors include four sons, Martin and Faye of Liberty, South Carolina, Michigan, Montana, and Tennessee. There are ten grandchildren, who live in Alaska, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, and nine great-grandchildren, who range in age from five years old to two weeks old today.

*She beat me more than I beat her, when I last played her a few months ago.

Photo courtesy of Pauline LaBar-Shelton

A good man

A former colleague of mine, Herbert Dongell, is to be buried today. The Greenville News obituary gives some of his academic accomplishments, and lists churches that he pastored, along with other details of his life.

Herb didn't leave a large on-line footprint. He didn't have a radio or TV ministry. He never got rich. But he was a good man. I suppose that his family, who knew him best, were sometimes annoyed by habits and characteristics that the rest of us knew nothing about. Perhaps his students saw weaknesses or tendencies that I never did. I did know that there were some aspects of his job, or of being a pastor, or on a committee, that he liked, and did well at, and others that he didn't like so much. But, to me, and, I think, to most of us who saw him as a colleague and friend, or as a pastor, or teacher, he was a humble, good, godly, holy man, who happened to also be intelligent and articulate. I think of Romans 2:7, which says that some people seek a heavenly reward by "patience in well-doing" (ESV). That was Herbert Dongell. He showed us that it is possible to live a godly life.

Did he achieve an eternal reward because he was good? Of course not. The passage doesn't say that people get an eternal reward because they patiently do well. It says that they show evidence of seeking it by behaving that way. Herbert Dongell's reward is because he believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as paying for his sins. Christ paid for that reward. Herbert Dongell couldn't.

God's best to his family and friends, now and in the days to come.

Thanks for reading.