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AN APPRECIATION Of ALFRED C. REDFIELD AND HIS SCIENTIFIC WORK

[A Brief History of this Biography, Jonathan J. Cole, Institute of Ecosystem Studies, 65 Sharon Turnpike, Millbrook, New York 12545 USA; colej@ecostudies.org Why is ASLO publishing a biography of A.C. Redfield in this special issue of the Bulletin? I am sure that most ASLO members would agree that Redfield was sufficiently interesting as a person, and well beyond sufficiently significant as a scientist, to warrant a biography. If you do not yet feel that way, after you read P.J. le B William’s interpretation of Redfield’s life and I am sure you will. But, that is only part of the story. Several years ago the ASLO Board realized that all of the society’s awards that were named after someone were named only after limnologists (G.E. Hutchinson, Ruth Patrick, Raymond Lindemann). Of course both limnologists and oceanographers receive these awards and do so in about equal numbers, but that no oceanographer had been memorialized with a named award seemed a salinity imbalance in need of fixing. The Board decided to take the one award that was not yet attached to a name (the Lifetime Achievement Award) and name it after an oceanographer whose career exemplified a lifetime of scientific achievement, A.C. Redfield. Since that time the Board has also added a new award, named after John Martin, but that is another story. In the mean time and quite serendipitously, Dan Conley, who was then on the Board, had been given and old photocopy of a biography of Redfield which was prepared by his daughter (Elizabeth Marsh). Could ASLO, Dan suggested, publish this biography and make it part of the Redfield Award? This seemed like a good idea but there were some issues. Who owned the copyright of this unpublished manuscript? What would Redfield’s descendents think of this plan? How were we going to turn this family document into something ASLO could publish? All Dan knew was that he got the photocopy from Scott Nixon. Scott, it turned out, got it from John Farrington. John Farrington, it turned out was still in contact with the Redfield family. P.J. le B. Williams, whose term was just ending on the ASLO Board, volunteered to turn the unpublished manuscript into a shortened text that ASLO could publish and the result is published here. So by a circuitous route and a lot of people to thank, ASLO got permission to use Elizabeth Marsh’s manuscript as the basis of Peter Williams short biography of A.C. Redfield. ] PREAMbLE Redfield came from a family with both academic and engineering roots. The former was to have a more powerful effect on his career. His career would appear to be more opportunistic than directed, driven largely by circumstances: he moved from biology to physics, back to biology and into oceanography, chemistry, then geology. Without doubt, his major contribution was his seminal papers rationalizing the proportion in which the major biological elements occur and react in the oceans. It is interesting, when following his career, to try to understand what forces drove him and what opportunities availed themselves. The main part of this biography is drawn from the transcripts of an interview in 1973 of Redfield (then aged 83) by his daughter – Elizabeth “Libby” Marsh formerly Chair of Environmental Studies at Stockton College in New Jersey. The interview occurred some 10 years before his death. In preparing the biography, I have used his words where possible, which are given in italics and within quotes; where appropriate I have used his daughter’s questions, again in quotes. In this way I have tried to allow Redfield and those close to him to play a major part in telling his story. There are also direct citations from the transcripts in italics, but not in quotes. Whose words these are is unclear, but I suspect they were added by Elizabeth when the transcript was compiled. I have supplemented the transcript with other sources: notably Redfield’s own writings and also an interview in August 1974 by Elsa Keil Sichel and Dr. John Dale Roslansky, who were recording oral histories for the Woods Hole Library’s Historical Collection. These extra sources have added depth and enabled me to confirm details such as dates. I have added some clarifying comments to the abstracted text in square brackets. As I have discovered, a biography is more about what you elect to leave out, than what you chose to put in. To keep the biography to an acceptable length, 90% or more of the material available to me has been omitted. Those who knew him well may feel that as a consequence there are biases and perhaps serious omissions – for these I apologize. Further, I have made no