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Dr. Edmund C. Jaeger, 1887-1983 I met Dr. Jaeger, at the 4th Palaver, in September, 1958. It was held south of Palm Springs "near the 3000 foot level off the Palms-to-Pines Highway." I went as the guest of one of my fine, young, pre-dental students, Bill Symonds, who lived in Ontario and later became our family dentist for many years. I was fresh out of graduate school at Indiana University and only a month before had started my first full-time teaching job at La Verne College, in La Verne, CA. I had heard many stories about Dr. Jaeger's discoveries and his desert exploits. He was described to me as a "crusty old desert biologist that had explored the Mojave Desert with his pack mule," and that he knew more about the Mojave Desert than any man alive. As a young (27 year old) plant taxonomist I was anxious to meet this legend, but I could never have imagined that this casual meeting would change my life in so many ways. A few weeks after the Palaver, I received a post card from Dr. Jaeger asking me if I would like to spend a week with him botanizing and exploring the Panamint and Saline Valleys and the surrounding mountains. I jumped at the chance! During the spring break that year we took the trip. Having grown up in Indiana, every place we went and everything that he showed me was new. I could name every native plant growing in Indiana, but here was a whole new world. I struggled to recognize even the families, and when I named the ones that I did know, I often mispronounced them, and he patiently corrected me, fifty times, maybe a hundred, each time explaining the governing rule. He quizzed me on my beliefs and ideas, and everyday I saw a myriad of new places and new things. At home after the trip, I felt extremely dejected. After my poor showing, I was certain that the only way I would ever get to see Dr. Jaeger again was to go to the next Palaver. Again I was surprised, for a few weeks later he visited me at La Verne College. I showed him around our meager facilities and as he was leaving, he invited me to come visit him at his home in Riverside. He showed me around his yard and garden for a few minutes, pointing out some of the plants that we had seen on our trip, and then we went inside to his comfortable, but austere office and living room. He quickly directed our conversation to pronunciation, and asked if our biology department had a copy of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. We didn't, and he said he had a spare copy he would like to give to us. I don't know if it eventually helped me with my pronunciation of scientific names or not, but I was certainly motivated to use it a lot over the years. On another occasion, after he found that the biology department did not have a field vehicle of any type, he wrote me, stating that he would like to give us four thousand dollars to help us purchase some type of field research vehicle. I was dumbfounded. He lived so simply and I had heard many stories about his countless loans to promising students. I felt certain that he had little available cash. However, a few days later his check arrived. We bought a very rugged camper and mounted it on my Ford 250 pickup. Now we could roam the deserts, even when Dr. Jaeger wasn't available. We immediately started taking regular trips with our students, and, of course, we took some of them to the Palavers to meet Dr. Jaeger, and share in this unique opportunity. Dr. Jaeger was the consummate teacher, who felt that a proper education and a true respect for nature was the only hope for humanity. He encouraged students to read and study by funding several book scholarships. We received one of his grants and established the Edmund Jaeger Book Award. This yearly $250.00 award allows students to buy reference books (not text books) in their chosen fields of interest. On one of Dr. Jaeger's visits to La Verne, I gave him a tour and told him about the new Science/Education building that was under construction. He seemed very impressed with our planning and said he would like to help us develop a teaching museum. He eventually donated enough money to buy all of the display cabinets for the museum. We named it the Jaeger Teaching Museum. Today it houses a small collection of his papers, books and other Jaeger artifacts, plus the Fischer Herbarium, the Hutchison Native American Basket Collection, the Ester Fink South and Central American Native Textile Collection, one of five complete saber tooth cat (tiger) specimens in the world, the flora and fauna teaching collections, and much more. Dr. Jaeger was a philanthropist, even though he might not have liked the epithet. He was always giving of himself. He gave as a teacher, with a style that captured the hearts and minds of hundreds of people from all over the world. His world was the desert and he gave the desert to us! He interpreted it to us in person and described it to us in his books and articles. He showed us parts of the desert that we would never have seen without his help. He gave us his time, in the classroom, on field trips, and in his home. He was never too busy to talk to a friend, to correct an error, to teach us a new fact, or to help with a problem. Dr. Jaeger's biggest surprise came to us after his death at 96. He had said to me several times in conversations and letters that he was going to "remember us in his will." So, when the estate was settled I received a letter asking me to drop by the house at a certain time to pick up some personal items, including some books and a quilt that I believe his sisters had made for him. I was pleased to receive these remembrances and assumed that was the end of it. However, several days later the College received a letter informing them that Dr. Jaeger had willed a large amount of money to the school. It was to be put into a trust fund and the proceeds used for scholarships for our science students. It was a big shot in the arm for the science division. We had never been able to award our own scholarships, and now we could financially encourage a few bright young scientists each year, and keep some students in school, that otherwise we would have lost. At the 100th Palaver, on October 9, 2004, I was asked why Dr. Jaeger gave money to little old La Verne College? I don't know. The only real connection that he had with us was through the faculty and students that he learned to know through the years, starting with Dave Coffman, Bill Symonds, Harvey Good, Bob Hoover and my family. As a result of earlier unfortunate associations with churches, Dr. Jaeger was opposed to rigid organized religion, but he was a sensitive and spiritual man. I think that he liked what he found out about our small school, founded by the Church of the Brethren, that proclaimed that our actions, and service to others, say more about us, than all of our words and oaths. I do know that La Verne College never made any overt attempts to encourage Dr. Jaeger to give money to the school. The Edmund Jaeger legend and his legacy live on at, what is now, the University of La Verne. Each year eight or ten students benefit from the Jaeger Scholarship Fund that he established. One student, especially interested in Natural History, receives the Jaeger Book Award, and specimens and artifacts from the Jaeger Museum are used constantly in our science classes. The camper is long gone, and we have been able to buy two more since then. The old Webster's Unabridged Dictionary is still with us, but it has been moved to its new quarters in the Edmund C. Jaeger Museum. Dr. Jaeger, my old friend; what remarkable things you have inspired and enabled us to do. We thank you. - Dr. Robert T. Neher, Chair of the Natural Science Division, |
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