Russell John Long

Ohio Journal of Science, The, Dec, 2004 by Christopher Cumo

Russell John Long, age 92, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, died 16 August 2002 at Christus Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, Beaumont. Long was an authority on the migration, settlement, and material culture of the Paleoindians of North America. He authenticated one of the earliest such settlements in what is today Texas. His work helped to demonstrate that humans had spread through but North America by the end of the Pleistocene Epoch after having crossed a land bridge between Asia and North America between 10,000 and 11,000 BCE. This insight has bolstered the hypothesis that humans expanded rapidly in number and geography, a view congenial to the Malthusian model of exponential increase in population until checked by war, famine, and disease. Russell Long joined The Ohio Academy of Science in 1947 and became an Emeritus member in 1994. Academy records do not specify his section of affiliation, a fitting ambiguity given his breadth of interests.

Born 16 March 1910 in Ada, OH, Russell Long was the son of Emmet Elijah Long and Sarah Oliver (Hefner) Long. As a child Russell Long collected Paleoindian arrowheads on the farm of paternal grandfather Michael Long, an activity that stoked lifelong interests in prehistory, history, archaeology, anthropology (both physical and cultural), and pre Columbian material culture. After graduating from Ada High School in 1928 Long entered Ohio Northern University, Ada, where he decided against specialization in a single field of inquiry. Instead, Long received an A.B. in Liberal Studies from Ohio Northern University in 1932. He split his graduate courses between zoology and botany at Miami University, Oxford, OH, receiving an M.A. in zoology (the university then classified zoology among the Arts rather than Sciences) in 1933. His thesis, "A Study of an Interglacial Flora and Fauna from the Forest Floor between the Illinoian and the Early Wisconsin Glacial Advances," drew on the disciplines of botany, zoology, geology, climatology, and ecology.

At this juncture the necessity of earning a living impeded Russell Lung's education, though jobs were scarce with the country in the throes of the Great Depression. Then as now, employers undervalued a liberal education, compounding the difficulty of his finding work. In these circumstances the absence of training in a branch of engineering or a kindred discipline may have hindered Long, and between 1933 and 1935 he subsisted on a sporadic income as a substitute teacher. Between 1935 and 1942 he was a journalist and news editor at the Ada Herald. The United States entry in December 1941 into World War II thrust Russell Long beyond the familiar surroundings of Ada. Between 1942 and 1945 he served in the United States Army. A member of the Army band Long played the tuba, an instrument on which he had been proficient since his teens. He performed for British and American troops in the Levant, Iran, Iraq, and India regions, then part of the British Empire. His travel in the eastern Mediterranean and in western and southern Asia broadened his appreciation of Islamic and Hindu civilizations. Long returned to the United States and received an honorable discharge from the Army in 1945.

His immediate postwar activities are unclear, though in 1948 he entered The Ohio State University, Columbus, under the provisions of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (the G.I. Bill) and in 1952 received a Ph.D. in zoology. His dissertation was entitled "The Sciuridae of Ohio: A Study of Their Ecology and the Anatomy of the Digestive Tract and Brain." Long had become instructor of biology at Lamar University the previous year, advancing to assistant professor (1952-1959), associate professor (1959-1965), professor (1965-1979), and Emeritus Professor of Biology (1979-2002). Dr. Long taught introductory biology, field biology, kinesiology, histology, and embryology, focusing in each on the methodology of science. He deemed the habits of inquiry and rigorous testing of hypotheses, rather than the retention of facts, the hallmark of education.

Russell Long's study of pre Columbian peoples and their material culture culminated in publication of McFadden Beach (1977), the first monograph in The Patillo Higgin Series of Natural History and Anthropology issued by the Spindletop Museum, Lamar University. McFadden Beach established the antiquity of Paleoindian settlement along 24 kilometers of coastline near what is today Sea Rim State Park, Sabine Pass, TX. Among the hand tools and projectile points, Long catalogued more than 65 from the Clovis industry, the largest such find in Texas to date. Dr. Long participated in "Paleoindian Archeology at McFadden Beach, Texas," a conference on 15-16 November 1991 in Port Arthur, TX, that affirmed the Paleoindian settlement near Sea Rim State Park as one of the earliest and richest in pre Columbian artifacts in Texas. In retirement Russell Long delighted in the culture of ornamental plants and the study of music. He was a member of Delta Sigma Phi, Kappa Kappa Psi and Phi Lambda Pi.