RS

122 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS

ELECTED 1945

 

University of Wisconsin

EDWIN BROUN FRED
(1887-1981)

Edwin Broun Fred was born in Middleburg, Virginia, 22 March
1887. At the time his parents lived in Anadarko, Oklahoma Territory,
but traveled back to their Virginia home for the birth of each successive
child. Because of his loss of property during the Civil War, Edwin Fred’s
grandfather had accepted a post as Indian agent near Fort Sill and
Edwin’s father had returned to Middleburg to find a bride. Until he was
six or seven years old Edwin Fred’s playmates were Kiowa and Coman-
che Indian boys. The Fred family returned to Middleburg in the early
1890s and his formative years were steeped in the lore of the Civil War.
Twenty-five years earlier Jeb Stuart had once bivouacked on the family’s
Jower pasture. Edwin’s grandfather Broun had raised Traveler, General
Lee’s beloved mount. The farms of both Edwin Fred’s grandfathers had
been laid waste by Union and Confederate troops alternately advancing
and retreating across their fields.
EDWIN BROUN FRED 123

At Middleburg, Edwin Fred’s parents prospered. They regained
possession of the farms that had been owned by both grandfathers and
acquired a governess to educate their children. This mode of instruction
was adopted because the “high-spirited” young Edwin had contributed
to discipline problems in a one-room school with sixty pupils and one
teacher. At age twelve Edwin enrolled at Randolph Macon Academy,
from which he graduated in 1903. Science courses taught at the academy
by enthusiastic and interesting teachers apparently directed Edwin
Fred’s choice of a career. Science in America at that time was most
actively pursued in the field of agriculture and the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture not only supported scientific investigation but also
communicated to farmers the discoveries that might prove useful to
them. The first federal support for agricultural research at state experi-
ment stations was provided by the Hatch Act in 1887, the year Edwin
Fred was born. Fred chose VPI, Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical
College and Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg to prepare for a career
in science.

His major in bacteriology included courses in clinical diagnosis,
agricultural microscopy, mycology and plant pathology. Following
graduation in 1907 he remained at VPI to teach plant pathology and to
earn a master’s degree. His research results dealing with nitrogen metab-
olism of bacteria were published in eight Virginia Agricultural Experi-
ment Reports. Three of his professors (in bacteriology, chemistry, and
agricultural chemistry) had received their doctoral degrees at the Uni-
versity of Gottingen and must have encouraged Edwin to do likewise.

At Gottingen Fred studied bacteriology with Alfred Koch and
chemistry with Tollens. His dissertation dealt with the stimulatory
effects of various poisons on the growth and metabolism of plants and
bacteria. When he completed the doctoral degree, Fred returned to VPI
where he developed chemical methods for determining the extent of
bacterial contamination of milk and conducted extensive studies on ni-
trogen fixation by bacteria growing symbiotically on legume roots.

In the summer of 1913 Fred married Rosa Parrott with whom he
had corresponded while in Germany. Planning for the wedding was
interrupted by messages from the University of Wisconsin. Dean of
Agriculture Harry Russell sought a young basic scientist for his bacteri-
ology department. The position was temporary, carried financial support
for only one semester, but permitted Fred to stay for the entire academic
year if he chose. As he explained many years later, he chose to leave the
security of his position at VPI because of Wisconsin’s reputation for
supporting free, basic research. During his first year in Madison the
College of Letters and Science dissolved its department of bacteriology
124 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS

allowing all university bacteriology courses to be taught in the corre-
sponding department in the College of Agriculture. An assistant profes-
sorship was created for Fred, who devoted the rest of his life to the
university.

From 1908 to 1939 Edwin Fred authored or coauthored 192 re-
search papers. Most dealt with nitrogen-fixing bacteria but others cov-
ered a wide variety of fermentation processes. He directed the research
and training of twenty-four doctoral students, many of whom became
world-famous bacteriologists.

As a result of his research contributions Fred was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences in 1931 and to the presidency of the
Society of American Bacteriologists in 1932. The American Philosophi-
cal Society’s membership was offered in 1945. From 1941 to 1944 he
served on the War Board’s Consultant Committee and as director of
Research and Development in the War Research Service. The United
States Medal for Merit, awarded to Fred in 1945, recognized his contri-
butions to our defense against the possibility of bacterial warfare.

Almost from the beginning of his career at Wisconsin Fred acquired
administrative experience by serving on appointed, or elected commit-
tees. When Charles Slichter retired from his position as dean of the
Graduate School, Fred was appointed dean and thus was responsible for
dispensing research funds provided by the legislature and by the Wiscon-
sin Alumni Research Foundation, a nonprofit corporation that adminis-
tered university patents. In 1943 Fred was offered the combined position
of dean of agriculture, director of the Agricultural Experiment Station
and director of the Agricultural Division of the University Extension.
Having barely started to shape the many sectors under his jurisdiction,
Fred was asked to become president of the university and began that task
in February of 1945.

As an administrator Fred was described as reluctant to say ‘““No.”
Positive decisions were reached with alacrity, negative ones were post-
poned if possible. But on important issues he stood firm. In the early
1950s he prevented pressure groups from banning campus organizations
considered “suspect’”’ by the attorney general. He persuaded the Board
of Regents not to impose a loyalty oath on university faculty. He was
loved by the students and was the first president at the university to be
officially honored by the student body. During his thirteen-year adminis-
tration the university’s enrollment tripled, research funding increased
eightfold and buildings proliferated.

Following retirement in June 1958 Fred continued to serve the
university by increasing his ardent advocacy for educating mature
women. He was instrumental in procuring funds to support their gradu-
EDWIN BROUN FRED 125

ate studies and the program became highly successful. He wrote an
authoritative history of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
With help from the university archivist and an associate he wrote A
University Remembers—a compilation of memorial gifts made to the
University. In turn he became the subject of a fascinating biography by
Dr. Diane Johnson, an E.B. Fred Fellow in the History of Science whose
undergraduate degree had been in bacteriology.

This kindly gentlemen who contributed so much to his university
died in Madison 16 January 1981.

HENRY LARDY