Mrs. Ruby Marr

Born in the small west Texas town of Lamesa, John W. Marr (1914-1989), became a major contributor to arctic and alpine ecology, and a primary facilitator of ecological research in alpine tundra in the U.S.

Beginning with a major in botany at Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas, in the early 1930s, Marr developed a life-long interest in mountains during a school field camp in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of northern New Mexico. Further field trips convinced him that the teaching of botany should include a strong emphasis on field activities.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech in 1936, and after a year of graduate school at Northwestern University, Marr transferred to the University of Minnesota. As a student of Prof. William S. Cooper, he accompanied an expedition to the Hudson Bay-Richmond Gulf area of northern Canada in 1939 and in the summer of 1941 studied sand dunes on the Oregon coast and the ecology of Mount St. Helen.

On his 1939 Canadian trip, during which he pursued ecological research on the forest-tundra ecotone, he initiated his dissertation research on the ecology of the east coast of Hudson Bay. Completed in 1942, when he received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Marr’s dissertation was published in Ecological Monographs in 1948. It is a classic paper on treeline in northern Canada, establishing the fact that the dearth of soils, not climate, limits the distribution of trees.

During World War II, the Arctic became strategically important because the shortest air route to Europe crossed the Greenland ice cap. It was important to determine the possibility of German bombers landing and refueling on the Greenland ice cap for bombing raids on the eastern U.S. And Greenland was also the logical stopover point for ferrying fighter planes and bombers to the U.S. Eighth Air Force in Britain. Searching for information about the Arctic and a source for that information, the Air Force created a civilian position for Marr as Arctic Regions Specialist in the Arctic, Desert and Tropics Information Center (ADTIC). Stationed in Greenland for part of the war, Marr found his arctic knowledge and skills involved him with rescues of downed flight crews on the ice cap. The ADTIC information bulletin, Living Off the Arctic, a vest pocket arctic survival skills manual, was published in July 1943 using information largely compiled by Marr.

In September 1944, as the war in Europe began drawing to a close, John Marr was released from ADTIC so that he could join the biology department at the University of Colorado. In Colorado, Marr quickly recognized that processes operating in winter controlled much of the ecology of the Front Range. With little accurate long-term and year-round environmental data from mountain ecosystems available, Marr began teaching a winter research class in 1946. His class, based at the University Camp/Science Lodge, had immediate access to Niwot Ridge, which extends 6k from Niwot Mountain (3498m) on the eastern end, to Navajo Peak (4087m) at the western end, in the Front Range west of Boulder. After winterizing the Science Lodge, Marr and students with skis, snowshoes, arctic clothing, and winterized instruments, sought to learn the effects of high winds, freezing temperatures, and dry air on plants.

While his winter research classes developed, in 1948, Marr organized an expedition to Ungava Bay in northeastern Canada. One part of that expedition found his party following and describing the Leaf River into areas that only one other white explorer had ever seen before. In 1956 and 1957 he returned to Greenland to do research on patterned ground in the area of Thule. But his most important achievement was at the University of Colorado.

Having established winter research in the Science Lodge area and on easily accessed Niwot Ridge above it, Marr’s interest in climate coincided with national defense needs. The U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Research and Development Command wanted to know more about mountain weather in order to equip troops for potential action. In 1951, John Marr received a federal grant that provided support to establish 16 year-round weather and ecosystem-monitoring stations in the Colorado Front Range. Stations were placed in four major ecosystem regions: the alpine (11,300 feet to mountain summits), subalpine (9,300 to 11,000 feet), upper montane (8,000 to 9,000 feet), and lower montane (6,000 to 8,000 feet) climax ecosystem regions.

In April of 1951, the University of Colorado also established the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Ecology. The name soon changed to the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, commonly called the “Institute." The alpine tundra on Niwot Ridge, where Marr had first begun his studies of Rocky Mountain tundra, now became a research site operated by the Institute.

Marr assembled a team of graduate students at the Institute. Planning began on two major fronts: (1) locating sites and installing 16 climatic stations (four weather stations in each of the four ecosystem climax regions) and (2) renovating the Science Lodge for use as a year-round base. By September 1951, all 16 stations had been sited and equipped. Using weather station equipment, snow “weasels," trucks and cold weather clothing provided by the Army, they created monitoring stations that have provided continuous data since 1953. With the exception of Marr, none of his students had any experience working in the kinds of weather conditions encountered at high altitudes, but he was extremely careful in field operations and no serious accidents or mishaps occurred.

Marr emphasized the concept of ecosystem, illustrating the ecosystem by reference to the altitudinal distribution of climate regions in the Front Range west of Boulder. At the Institute, he could focus his students on field activities. Numerous scientists from around the world came to do research at the Institute. Marr had a sharing attitude toward other scientists and built an international reputation for the Institute, receiving money in 1962 to build an alpine laboratory at the Science Lodge.

Unfortunately, Marr had to balance teaching, research, and Institute responsibilities with an appointment as half-time Institute director and half-time biology faculty. As early as October 1956, he considered resigning as director of the Institute because he was reluctant to devote more time to administration there at the sacrifice of his own research. He felt that directors should be chosen for specific terms, and in 1966, he announced that the time had come for the Institute to have a full-time director. Jack D. Ives, the Director of the Canadian Federal Geographical Branch, Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources, was offered the position and was supported by Marr. Ives accepted the position of full-time director. Yet after Ives arrived at the Institute, in what at the least could be called an example of academic jealousy, Ives told Marr to leave the Institute and return to teaching full-time in the biology department. Unable to teach a course at or even have research space at what became the INSTAAR Mountain Research Station, and denied access to his environmental data files there, Marr returned to the biology department, where he also did consulting work through his Laboratory of Mountain Ecology for Man.

When Marr retired from the University of Colorado in 1982, he received the Robert L. Stearns Award for outstanding service. Nomination for the Stearns award includes letters of support from colleagues within and without the University of Colorado. A letter by Prof. William A. Weber, of the University Museum, spoke of the lack of support that Marr had received over the years from his department head and colleagues in the biology department in his efforts to develop mountain research:

“That John was able to quietly persevere in good humor through all of that is really remarkable. Also, the trauma that he suffered as a result of staffing the new INSTAAR with a director of his choice, who immediately proceeded to oust John from the institute and deny him access to the mountain station, was very severe, so severe that I believe he never recovered from it. But through it all, he never was vindictive, and put the welfare of the Institute and the University above all personal cares." (see Box 8 Folder 1)

NOTE: Mrs. Ruby Marr has added correspondence and materials about Dr. Marr’s career, and Mrs. Marr has kindly added explanatory notes on certain documents.

From the guide to the John W. Marr Papers, 1932-2001, (University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries. Archives Dept.)