 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Professor leaves a marine science legacy, admirers
By LENNIE BENNETT © St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2001 ST. PETERSBURG -- Dr. Harold Judson Humm was almost 89 when he died in North Carolina on Dec. 11, known in his community as a gardener and collector of stamps. His quiet demise several thousand miles away belied a remarkable legacy here in St. Petersburg, where he lived for about 20 years. Dr. Humm is considered the father of the University of South Florida marine science program. He loved, fostered and fought for it through years of indifference by university officials and state legislators. In 1967, when the St. Petersburg campus was an inconsequential satellite of the growing USF campus in Tampa, Humm was recruited from Duke University, where he had started the Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C. He was given $79,000, a derelict building and only two other professors to create a marine science program. An editorial at the time stated, "The present Cabinet and Legislature have dealt stingily with the project. ... The start is a modest one but will give St. Petersburg a strategic foothold in a science that is just in its infancy and destined to grow rapidly in importance and scope." Dr. Humm lived to see the truth of those words. The Marine Science Institute is now a college within the USF system and internationally recognized, with graduate students from 17 countries, a budget of about $500-million, 162,000 square feet of facilities and a staff of 240, including 27 faculty members. "Without him there would be no program," said Dr. Peter Betzer, acting dean of the college, who came to USF in 1971 to work with Dr. Humm. Dr. Humm was an intellectual, a Phi Beta Kappa with a doctorate from Duke. He wrote three books and more than 150 articles for journals and scholarly magazines. He was a researcher, named Florida Scientist of the Year by his peers in 1981, who held a patent on a method of extracting gels from seaweed. Eleven new species of marine life are named for him. He was also, say those knew him, a gifted and caring teacher. "He picked really good young people" to work in the fledgling program, Betzer said. "He was not over-directive and let people develop their own programs. He allowed us to flourish." "His legacy can't be minimized," said Dr. Ike Levine, a graduate student of Dr. Humm's from 1977 to 1979. "m. He was also, say those knew him, a gifted and caring teacher. "He picked really good young people" to work in the fledgling program, Betzer said. "He was not over-directive and let people develop their own programs. He allowed us to flourish." "His legacy can't be minimized," said Dr. Ike Levine, a graduate student of Dr. Humm's from 1977 to 1979. "He defined the word "mentor.' He didn't give up when you screwed up." Levine and Betzer said that under Dr. Humm's leadership, the program produced a number of distinguished graduates, including Sylvia Earle, of National Geographic fame, Ronald Baird, who heads Sea Grant, the federal agency that Betzer says is the marine analog to the Department of Agriculture, and Ken Carder, "one of the foremost optical physicists in the world," Betzer said. Levine, who lives in Maine, went on to earn a doctorate at the University of Hawaii. He taught, then formed a biotech company that developed Nori, the organic seaweed widely used to make sushi. He recently sold his company and at 44 is semiretired. "My love for seaweed," Levine said, "grew out of two years of study by his side. His passion was seaweed." Both men speak of Dr. Humm's encyclopedic knowledge of plants and animals. "He could go from the mountains of North Carolina down to the tidal zones and into the water, down 500 feet, and know every plant and animal," Levine said. "You could learn more from him in the field than from 100 textbooks." "I was in awe," said Betzer. "Most scientists who can identify every clam wouldn't know sponges. He knew it all. Do you know how rare that is?" "We could bring up a load of sediment from the bottom, with all kinds of microscopic worms, crawly things, shells and plants and he would know every single thing in it. He is one of only two guys I have ever met who could do that." During World War II, Humm was deferred from military service because "all our potash came from Japanese seaweed," Levine said. "His job was to go along the coast, from Maine to Florida, to find wild seaweed to replace it." Levine said that when he was studying with Dr. Humm for his master's degree, "I broke my leg and was in the hospital. When I got out, it was a hot, humid 90 degrees and he was mowing my lawn, doing my field work and keeping my experiments going." "He was a Southern gentleman," said Betzer, "gracious and always thoughtful. He also had a temper." "He was always angry with me for having "outside interests' like a girlfriend," Levine said. "He would call it irresponsible behavior." The institute at USF was upgraded to the Marine Science Department in 1971, and he was its first chairman. He stepped down in 1974, saying he wanted to spend more time on research. The faculty had grown to nine and its success in research was substantial enough to give the department a Center of Excellence in the state university system. Until he retired in 1983, Dr. Humm gave public tours at Fort De Soto and Lassing parks so non-academics could understand the local ecosystem. Once he moved to Brevard, N.C., he turned to gardening, Levine said. "He was a modest man. It was his only prideful thing," said Levine, who kept in touch with Dr. Humm. "He'd tell me about his seven plantings of corn while I was up in Maine dealing with snow." "He was the last of the great naturalists," Levine added. "I read some of his journals that he started when he was young. Even then, he had this curiosity. He grew up in Miami, and when he was 12, he and a friend rowed out into Biscayne Bay in a small skiff. They hooked a shark and he didn't want to let it go. It towed them way out into the Atlantic, and Humm had to decide at some point to release it. They rowed back late that night. He described the lights in Biscayne Bay." Dr. Humm is survived by his wife of 63 years, Olga Susanne Humm, two daughters, a son and nine grandchildren.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
