BIOLOGY

     

The Barbara A. Beiser  

Field Station - Dedication

September 15th, 2007

 

Barbara Beiser Voorhees was a 1949 graduate of Marietta College.  She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Business. Barbara was born in Marietta and graduated from Marietta High School. Her father, John Beiser, was a circulation manager at The Marietta Times and a local golf pro. Her grandfather, Dr. John A. Beiser, was a dentist in Marietta -- his office was located at 254 Front Street from 1901 until his death in 1962. Barbara died on August 2, 2005 in Highland Park, New Jersey.  Barbara is survived by her husband Ralph, four children, 15 grandchildren, and her brother John.  Ralph  is a retired stockbroker and graduated from Rutgers University in 1948 and received his MBA from NYU in 1950. The field station property was in the Beiser family for many years and was last farmed before the Great Depression, although portions have been logged since.  

History

 

The Barbara A. Beiser Field Station was dedicated on the Marietta College Campus on September 15th, 2007.  Speaking at the event were Marietta College President Jean A. Scott, Dr. Steve Spilatro, Chair of the Biology Department, Marilyn Ortt, President, Friends of Lower Muskingum River, and Ralph Voorhees, honored guest and benefactor.

 

Program

    
President Jean Scott welcomed the guests.
Dr. Steve Spilatro, chair of the biology department, spoke on what the station will mean to the students.

Marilyn Ortt, president of  Friends of Lower Muskingum River, spoke on behalf of the organization that made the station possible, and which will hold the land in trust to protect it from development.
Ralph Voorhees, who donated the land for the station and money for its upkeep, in the name of his late wife, Barbara A. Voorhees.  The land had been in Barbara's family for over 100 years.

Ralph Voorhees and his nephew, David Sands, with the plaque dedicating the station.  The plaque is mounted in the Rickey Science Center on the Marietta College Campus, about 7 miles west of the field station itself.  David Sands, a Marietta College graduate, was instrumental in bringing Ralph together with the college.

Following a lunch at President Scott's home, many of the group traveled out to the field station for a first-hand look:

 

Dedication Day at the Barbara A. Beiser Field Station.  

Front Row (l to r): Althea, Bradford, Tasha.  Second Row: Dave Jeffery (Geology, kneeling), Judy Voorhees Trope, Bonnie Sands, Elizabeth Sands, Dave McShaffrey (Biology).  Back:  Andrea Miller, Mark Miller (Mathematics, Chair of Faculty), Alan Voorhees, Ralph Voorhees, David Sands, Jack Trope, Almuth Tschunko (Biology), Steve Spilatro (Biology).

 

Ralph Voorhees, Jack Trope, David Sands and Alan Voorhees at the graveyard of the nearby Hills Church.  This church (background) was where the Beiser family worshipped when they lived on their farm about 1/2 mile away (and visible from the church property).  
The grave marker in the foreground marks the grave of  the first Beiser to emmigrate from Germany and settle on what would later become the Barbara A. Beiser Field Station.

 

 

 

 

 

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Aerial view of the field station.  SR 26 runs east-west just out of the top of the frame; the Ohio River similarly runs southwest below the frame.  The red squares approximate the property boundaries.  

     

 

Updated 09/17/07 by DMC