Lawrence, Donald B. (Donald Buermann), 1911-1996

Donald B. Lawrence was a faculty member in the Botany Department at the University of Minnesota. Lawrence's main area of research involved studies of vegetation development on new land surfaces following glacier recession, landslides, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Although he was a botanist, glacier related studies were his first love. Lawrence took over the Glacier Bay seedling plot study begun by William S. Cooper in 1916, and visited the plots every few years starting in 1941 and ending in 1988.Lawrence also helped create the Cedar Creek Natural History Area in Anoka County, Minnesota. He died in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May, 1996.

From the description of Donald Buermann Lawrence papers, 1932-1996. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 62693410

Professor of botany and plant ecology at the University of Minnesota from 1937-1976; worked on various vegetation and glacial studies in Alaska.

From the description of Publications, biographical material and references to the work of Donald B. Lawrence, 1949-1982. (Alaska State Library). WorldCat record id: 42929293

Donald Lawrence was born in Portland, Oregon on March 8, 1911. He attended Allen Preparatory School and was enrolled in Reed College from 1928-1931. He left Reed before obtaining a degree and transferred to Johns Hopkins University in September 1931, where he received his Ph.D. in 1936 in Plant Physiology. His thesis was titled, "Vegetation of Columbia River Gorge." From 1936-1937 he continued his research on the Columbia River Gorge under a Sigma Xi grant.

He was hired as an instructor in the Botany Department at the University of Minnesota in 1937 and spent his entire professional career there. He was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1940, Associate Professor in 1947 and Professor in 1950. He retired in 1976.

Elizabeth Hoyle Gay married Donald Lawrence on June 7, 1935. She was born in Norwood, Massachusetts on November 20, 1904 and attended Norwood High School from 1918-1922. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1926 with a major in zoology. She did graduate work in cytology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University, 1933-1936 and in biology at the University of Minnesota, circa 1937-1940. Her expertise in these areas enabled her to provide valuable assistance on various expeditions with Lawrence as a member of the scientific teams in South America, New Zealand and Glacier Bay Alaska. She kept her own field notes and collaborated with Lawrence on various reports and publications relating to these expeditions. She died on March 19, 2000 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Lawrence's main area of research involved studies of vegetation development on new land surfaces following glacier recession, landslides, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Although he was a botanist, glacier related studies were his first love, according to a 1976 newsletter of the Minnesota Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, located in Lawrence's Biography File.

In 1941, William Skinner Cooper, also a professor of Botany at the University of Minnesota, invited Donald Lawrence to go to Glacier Bay Alaska, on an expedition to study permanent seedling plots laid out by Cooper in 1916 in Reid Arm. Called Quadrats, their purpose was to study forest vegetation in areas exposed by ice recession in Glacier Bay. Lawrence took over this study and visited the plots every few years starting in 1941 and ending in 1988, which was to be his last trip to Glacier Bay. Dr. Mark Noble has since continued the study in cooperation with Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Gustavus, Alaska. Dr. Ian Worley of the University of Vermont has also visited the plots and at present the study documents over 85 years of plant growth in that area.

Lawrence visited Glacier Bay at least 15 times and also conducted studies on cottonwood trees by establishing experimental cottonwood fertilization plots in 1949, which he referred to as "The Farm". Another study done in collaboration with scientists on Dryas Drummundii or mountain avens, resulted in a paper that was published in The Journal of Ecology in 1967, by D.B. Lawrence, R.E. Schoenike, A. Quispel and G. Bond.

In 1949 and 1955 he made expeditions to the Juneau Ice Fields to study advancing and receding glaciers.

Lawrence was an advocate of ethnobotany, which is the study of how plants are used and how they have contributed to the development of cultures. However, there is no evidence of this interest in the papers.

Lawrence was a founder of the Minnesota Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, established in 1951. In 1974 he and his brother William donated 380 acres of grassland near Shaniko, Wasco County, Oregon in honor of their parents. He was a member of the Conservancy's Board of Trustees (1960-1964, 1967-1972), served on the Planning Committee (1975), the Preserve Management Committee (1974-1976) as well as the Advisory Committee.

Lawrence also helped create the Cedar Creek Natural History Area in Anoka County, Minnesota. In 1947 he purchased 160 acres of land and presented 130 of those acres to the Minnesota Academy of Science for inclusion in the Cedar Creek Forest. He also helped raise funds to buy the Allison Savanna in Cedar Creek and served on the Advisory Committee for 20 years. On March 25, 1995, the Donald B. Lawrence Building was dedicated at Cedar Creek in his honor. Correspondence from former students regarding this event, relate memories of Donald and Elizabeth Lawrence.

In 1974 he received the AMOCO Foundation-Horace T. Morse award for contributions to undergraduate education in plant ecology.

He died in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May, 1996.

For more complete information on Donald Buermann Lawrence and Elizabeth Gay Lawrence, consult the biography files located in the University of Minnesota Archives.

From the guide to the Donald Buermann Lawrence papers, 1932-1996, (University of Minnesota Libraries. University of Minnesota Archives [uarc])