Willard Gersbacher
In SIUC Botany 1929 to 1930, 1932
From the Zoology web site (by George Waring):
Professor Willard Marion Gersbacher was born in Springerton, Illinois,
on 25 March 1906. In 1926, he obtained his bachelor's degree from
Southern Illinois Normal College (now SIU) and taught during the
1929-1930 school year for the Botany Department. Next he went to the
University of Illinois to earn a M.A. in 1928 and Ph.D. in Zoology in
1932. Dr. Gersbacher taught for a year at Eastern New Mexico Junior
Colloge (1934-35); then he taught at Eastern Illinois College
(1935-36). However, he returned to Southern in 1936 to join the
Department of Zoology -- first at the rank of Assistant Professor
(1936-38), then Associate Professor (1938-47), and finally as Professor
(1947-onward). In 1938, he married and subsequently had five children.
Dr. Gersbacher served as Department Head from 1938-1955. He taught
various zoology courses, including Ecology and Natural History of the
Vertebrates. SINC alumnus William Hill recalls the enjoyable annual
field trip taken by Dr. Gersbacher's ecology class to the Reelfoot Lake
area of western Tennessee. Dr. Gersbacher retired from SIU in 1966.
Thereafter he taught at Southeastern Missouri State University until
1972. He remained in Cape Girardeau until his death in 1989.
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