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Memoir

Carl D. LaRue
Regents' Proceedings 677

The loss of Carl Downey LaRue, whose death occurred August 19, 1955 is deeply felt throughout the University community and by his many colleagues in this country and in foreign lands.

Professor LaRue began his college training at Waldorf Lutheran College, Forest City, Iowa, where he was enrolled from 1904 to 1906. For the next year he was a country school teacher in District No. 2, Forest City, Iowa. From 1908 to 1911 he attended Valparaiso University, earning the B.S. degree in 1910 and the A.B. in 1911. He was Principal of the Kingwood, West Virginia, High School from 1911 to 1912, and Superintendent of Schools at Hatton, Washington, from 1912 to 1913. In 1914 he earned the A.B. degree from the University of Michigan, in 1916 the A.M., and in 1921 the Ph.D. degree. From 1914 to 1916 he was Assistant in Botany at the University, from 1916 to 1917 Instructor in the subject at Syracuse University, from 1917 to 1920 Research Botanist for the Hollandsche-Amerikaansche Plantage Maatschappij in Sumatra. From 1920 until his death he continuously was on the staff of the Botany Department of the University of Michigan, and from 1925 to 1950 on the staff of the Biological Station.

As a specialist in the culture of rubber, Professor LaRue developed the method of budding Hevea brasiliensis, the main source of natural rubber. His researches took him on many expeditions, to Brazil, to Bolivia, to Nicaragua, to Mexico, and to many other countries. He acquired expert knowledge of tropical agriculture, Malay and Dutch. His expeditions were sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture and by the Ford Motor Company.

In spite of serious illness in 1950, the last five years of his life were the most productive as a teacher and research specialist in a very productive career. Throughout his life at the University, he found time to work on many vital committees dealing with college and university problems. The honors that came to Professor LaRue were many and included the starring of his name in 1938 in American Men of Science, his election as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and his election to the Sullivant Moss Society, the American Association of Plant Pathologists, and the Explorers' Club.

The Regents of the University of Michigan join in the sorrow, which Professor LaRue's death has brought to his many colleagues and friends and express to his family their heartfelt sympathy.