153
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153
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Transcription
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profitable association with these and all of the other agricultural organizations of the state. His interest in tree planting and his relation to that work in the state and the nation attracted wide attention home and abroad. The remarkable work that the United States Forest Service has done and is now doing in the Nebraska sandhills is but one of the many important undertakings which were directly inspired by Dr. Bessey's enthusiasm and far-sightedness.
During the later years of his life Dr. Bessey was particularly delighted to observe the rapid progress that his adopted state was making along the various branches of agricultural endeavor. This was interpreted in a modest way as a result, in part at least, of the labors he bestowed in that direction in his earlier years in Nebraska. No more fitting tribute could have been rendered, nor one more gratifying to him, than was done in January, 1913, when hundreds of people representing all of the agricultural and many other activities of the state gathered in his honor and when numerous speakers helped to recall the incidents of his long period of service which was then in its twenty-ninth year.
The state of Nebraska loved Professor Bessey and he reciprocated that affection to the fullest, but that was merely one of the many directions toward which an overflowing measure of devotion and enthusiasm carried him. His broad-mindedness and the many-sidedness of his personality made him a valuable citizen of the state because his intellectual horizon was broad enough to include the great and the small affairs of the state and the nation and to stimulate the highest scientific achievement as well. That his sterling qualities were esteemed by his associates was strikingly illustrated by the great number of important offices to which he was elected, both at home and abroad. The highest scientific honor of this kind which came to him was probably the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His name occurs in the list of presidents of that famous organization along with such names as Agassiz, Gray, Dana, Torrey, Le Conte, Mendenhall, Newcombe, Remsen, and Jordan.
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To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
