Truitt, Reginald V. (Reginald Van), 1891-

Professor of Zoology at the University of Maryland and founder and director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.

Scientist, college teacher, conservationist, and public official, of Maryland.

Reginald Truitt was born in Snow Hill, Maryland, on August 12, 1890. He graduated from the Maryland Agricultural College in 1914, and after service in the Army Air Corps as a pilot, following a high school principalship, 1914-1918, returned to get his M. S. in 1922. Truitt received his doctoral degree from the American University in 1929. During the period of 1919-27 R. V. Truitt coached the Maryland lacrosse team, enabling it for the first time to become a major sport at the college. For this accomplishment he was elected to the Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1960.

Reginald Truitt began teaching at Maryland as a graduate assistant of Zoology in 1919, becoming a full professor in 1925, a post he held until 1941. He left to become director of the Maryland Department of Research and Education, where he stayed until 1954. During his professorship at the University of Maryland he founded the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and became Directory in 1925, retiring from this post in 1954. Between 1961-62 he was President of the University of Maryland Alumni Council.

After his retirement Dr. Truitt devoted much interest in Worcester County, Maryland, advising the Worcester County Committee of Mayors, Councilmen, and Representatives. In 1976 he completed a book on this subject, Worcester County: Maryland's Arcadia .