In Memoriam
Dr. George Sprugel, Jr.
Dr. George Sprugel, Jr., former Chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey, died September 10, 1999. George Sprugel was born September 26, 1919, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of George and Frances E. Sprugel. He received a Ph.D. in zoology from Iowa State University after graduating from high school in Williams, Iowa, and Waldorf College, Forest City, Iowa. He was called to military service in 1940 and served at sea on a destroyer, a hydrographic ship, and on motor torpedo boats.
Dr. Sprugel served as the Chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey from 1966 until he retired as chief emeritus in August 1980. He came to us from the U.S. National Park Service, where he served as a scientist and helped set up a program of scientific studies of animals and plants found in the national parks. He was instrumental in helping to set up the park service research program. He also served at the National Science Foundation from 1953 to 1964, not long after that organization began, and again was instrumental in charting its early course in funding the sciences. Other governmental agencies in which he served include the Atomic Energy Commission, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Science and Space Administration, and the National Academy of Sciences --National Research Council.
Dr. Sprugel was also active in many national societies and served in elective positions including vice president for biology and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, vice president and president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, vice president of the Ecological Society of America, secretary of the American Society of Zoologists, and treasurer of the American Water Resources Association.
The Illinois Natural History Survey remembers Dr. Sprugel as leading our research efforts in spite of considerable opposition from the Illinois Department of Education and Registration, in which the three scientific surveys were somewhat misplaced. He was instrumental in convincing the legislature to move the three surveys into what became the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. He is also remembered at the Survey for convincing the legislature that a research building was sorely needed by scientists employed by the State of Illinois to study our natural resources. Our research annex south of St. Mary's Road was built during his tenure as chief as well as the adjacent ponds used by the scientists studying the fishes and other biota in our lakes and streams. It is the present writer's recollection that George Sprugel loved the annual picnics that the Survey held at least once a year during the 1970s for the staff and their families. Indeed, only a few of the old timers are aware that he did not hesitate to fund some of these parties from his own pocket.
Dr. Sprugel and his wife also opened their home during certain holidays to visits from staff and families. After he retired, Dr. Sprugel gave to the Survey his private collection of insects collected in various places, but primarily in Iowa where he grew up and completed his education.
Dr. Sprugel is survived by his wife, Catherine B. Cornwall Sprugel; a son, Dr. Douglas G. Sprugel of Seattle; two grandchildren; two brothers, John E. Sprugel of Liberty, Missouri, and Dr. Charles W. Sprugel of Iowa Falls, Iowa; three sisters, Martha E. Thompson of Story City, Iowa, Frances M. Hollingsworth of Phoenix, and Alice P. Ose of Ames, Iowa.
-- Dr. Wallace LaBerge, INHS Center for Biodiversity o the INHS 98-99 Annual Report Main Page