Charles Arthur “Art” Schroeder 1913 – 2001   prepared by the Schroeder Family

 

 

Art was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on January 25^th, 1913.  He moved to Los Angeles, California in 1923.  He attended Fremont High School, graduating in 1931.  There he was inspired by J.W. Lukon, his horticulture teacher, to further his education in the field of plant science.  He attended UCLA, receiving his B.A. in 1934 and his M.A. in Botany in 1935.  He worked briefly at Rancho Sespe, a large citrus ranch, returning to UCLA in 1938 to work on a Ph.D. in Subtropical Horticulture. His doctoral dissertation was on the anatomy of the avocado fruit.  A week before the graduation ceremonies, he and Mary Elizabeth Reynolds, a graduate student in Botany, were married on June 6, 1943.  Art received one of the first Ph.D. degrees awarded from UCLA and Mary obtained her M.A. at the same graduation ceremony.  Art began his teaching at UCLA in July 1943 and taught courses in subtropical horticulture and later botany until he retired on June 30, 1983.  During this time he conducted research on many subtropical and tropical fruits both at UCLA and abroad.  These included avocado, cherimoya, persimmon, loquat, white sapote, kiwifruit, cacao, peach palm, loquat, date, citrus and others.  He was involved in some of the early exploration for avocado rootstocks in Mexico, Central America, Peru and Ecuador.  He received a Guggenheim award which he spent in Costa Rica and a Fulbright in New Zealand and was invited to participate in many international meetings in his field.  He accepted an FAO assignment in Malawi, one for the United Nations in India on dates and one in Chile for CORFO.  He traveled widely (54 countries), gave overseas lectures, spent sabbaticals in Costa Rica, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia and worked on cherimoya pollination in Spain.  Art published numerous articles on subtropical and tropical fruits in various scientific journals.

 

In addition to teaching and research he directed the first sixteen years of the pioneering Fulbright project at UCLA and other southern California institutions, which is continuing today.  He also spent several years as head of the Study Abroad Program at the University.  In 1963 he was named one of six outstanding teachers of the year in the student annual Southern Campus.  He was a founding member of the UCLA Credit Union, served as chairman of its board for several years, also served on various faculty committees and after retiring in the Emeriti Association.  He belonged to the California Avocado Society and received both their award and special award for contributions to the Society.  He was also member of the Board of Directors of the California Cherimoya Association, a member of the California Macadamia Society, Fruit Registrar for the California Rare Fruit Growers and Program Chairman for the Los Angeles Chapter, receiving a lifetime award.  He contributed many articles and presentations to these organizations and regularly consulted as a technical expert on a variety of topics.  

 

Even though his travels were curtailed in the past few years, he maintained worldwide contacts through E-mail and other correspondence and was busy writing articles and “A history of the College of Agriculture at UCLA,” from its beginning in 1929 until it terminated in 1960.  His wife, Mary, hopes to edit and publish it for him.  His hobbies were collecting books on flora and fauna, ethnomusical instruments and nutcrackers.  He was well respected for his enthusiasm in his field, inspiring many students and friends.  He was always eager to share findings and listen to the ideas of others.  He was a devoted father, not only to his immediate family, but to an extended group of many loved friends from many parts of the world.  His kindness, interest in others and his sense of humor will be remembered by many.