Found: WSC § father of Natural Sciences... The founding father of the Natural Sciences at Weber State College was Dr. John Gustave Lind. Setting out on his trail, with only the above information, my findings were sketchy indeed. I found a picture in an early yearbook, his obituary in the archives and then, nothing. It seemed very little evidence for a teaching career spanning 42 years at Weber College and depressing that so little remained as a testimony of his work. 2 Dr. Linttea Weber Acad 8! instructor fam and physiegs. 1 From this sterile beginning came a hint that led to Dr. Richard W. Moyle, professor of Geology. Dr. Moyle, early in his career at Weber State College, was asked 0 end Profeaaail 7 Father offieal S Weber, Hiamnd pioneered seiplit by his department chairman, Dr. Walter R. Buss, to catalog and organize Dr. Lind’s collection of minerals and rocks. They had become disorganized in the move from the Moench building to the new campus. Dr. Moyle had become interested in Dr. Lind when he first taught in his old classroom in Moench and working with his collection increased his interest. He started searching out everything he could find on the “founding father.” He has oral histories garnered from former students and co-teachers and students. He has also collected a number of articles that belong to Dr. Lind such as his specimen bag which he used in collecting minerals, rocks and flora samples. The Geology Department also has Dr. Lind’s 1910 Ernst Leitz Wetzlar microscope, crystal models he made while earning his Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, assaying equipment and other items of interest. college. Hetted 1 5 May 19, 1900 - Botaaiie Ogden. Left to right,} Godfrey, Dr. Lind, Jai Torgensen. Notice edi “bumbershoots.” Thomas Stokes, Pearl Oberhansley, Malcolm Watson and Bétty Noble. Dr. Lind earned his B.S. degree from the University of Utah in 1893, studied at the University of Chicago, 1903-04, the University of Jena in Switzerland and the Heidelberg University in Germany from 1907 to 1910 where he received his Ph.D. | In the classroom | . as a teacher, Dr. Lind had certain habits recalled by former student A. Russell Croft in an oral interview. He remembered that Dr. Lind had a favorite saying of “note that...” “He would hold his finger up and shake it and say ‘note that’ and you knew you'd better note it and remember it.” Mr. Croft also said that was always referred to affectionately on campus as “Doc Lind”, not to his face, but all the students knew him that way. “A written report was very carefully and critically checked and if it was correct and Dr. Lind was satisfied he took his pencil and put a thin, sharp check in the corner of the first page. Students learned to tell this mark from any other. An associate, Merlon Stevenson, said “Dr. Lind was a modest gentleman and scholar and because he was a scholar himself, he expected his students to be scholars also. He was well organized Page 6 and knew his subject backward and forward. Even in later years he took his students on field trips and they had a hard time keeping up.” One student remembered “running to keep up with Dr. Lind so she wouldn’t miss any of his remarks.” He was so well versed in all the land formations and plants that he talked a steady stream. A professor of Chemistry, the late Ralph Gray, recalled an experience related to him by students of Dr. Lind’s class. They were studying the weather and he asked “what makes the wind blow?” A student gave a completely “out-in-the-left-field” answer and Dr. Lind replied, “That answer you gave wouldn't even blow your hat offt” Dr. Lind often took his classes along the old railroad grade up Ogden Canyon to where Pine View Reservoir is now. Students would find smelter slag along the grade and come running up and ask what it was. “Trash, trash,” he’d say, and throw it into the creek. Later the students would retrieve it and “plant” it for the next trip but they could never fool him. | 4