Charles M. Breder, Jr., Chair
Dr. Charles M. Breder, Jr.: The Autumn Years
By
Dr. Perry Gilbert
Director, Mote Marine Laboratory (1967-1979)
When Genie Clark left the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory she had founded and so ably directed, she asked a talented and energetic phycologist, Dr. Sylvia Earle, to serve as interim director for 1966. Sylvia accepted the appointment for one year and continued her fine work with algae at the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory. The splendid collections she developed, housed in two large cabinets, are in constant use today. She trained Susi Dudley, with the help of Sylvia's mentor, Dr. Harold Humm, to carry on with the collections and add to the fine algae herbarium.
For the first six months of 1967, the highly acclaimed retired ichthyologist, Dr. Charles M. Breder, Jr., agreed to direct the activities of the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory until I came aboard on July 1, 1967.
I first met Dr. Breder in 1956 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and discussed with him the possibility of working at the Learner Marine Laboratory on Bimini, Bahamas. Dr. Breder had built the small Laboratory in 1948, where he made several important scientific observations on fishes living in those crystal clear waters, and had published several significant papers on his work. He was obviously the man to talk to about my proposed research, and I was delighted when he assured me that I would be a welcome investigator at the Lerner Marine Laboratory.
On my way to Bimini in 1957, I stopped off at the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory to discuss my programs of research with sharks with Genie Clark and Dr. Breder, who was spending this summer at the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory. Genie arranged for us to stay in one of the Vanderbilt mansions adjacent to the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, and I shall always remember that pleasant evening spent with the Breders in those palatial surroundings, sipping gin and tonics, discussing fish and fishing far into the night.
It was kind, indeed, of Dr. Breder to agree to serve as interim director of Cape Haze Marine Laboratory for the first six months of 1967, for he dislikes administrative chores wholeheartedly. All went well, however, and on July 1, 1967, I became the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory’s executive director. Within a year the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory was renamed the Mote Marine Laboratory in honor of its principal benefactor, William R. Mote. For the next eleven years Mr. Mote and I worked closely together, sharing all important decision making, and making sure all five major programs of research prospered as the Laboratory attained both national and international recognition.
Freed from administration duties, Dr. Breder’s programs dealing with fish schooling and the coloration of teleosts also flourished with the able assistance of his understudy, Patricia Bird. This latter study resulted in Dr. Breder’s classic monograph "On the relationship of teleost scales to pigment patterns". This monograph initiated the first of the series we published entitled "Contributions from the Mote Marine Laboratory".
Our weekly luncheons at the Mote Marine Laboratory with Dr. Breder in his wife, Priscilla, were high points in the daily routine for all of us who crowded around the small kitchen and listened to his reminiscences. Dr. Breder was always the consummate dignified gentleman with an inexhaustible supply of information on fishes and early ichthyologists who studied them.
As Mote Marine Laboratory grew, visiting investigators from Cornell and other universities came to work, at their own expense, for varying periods of time and they too enjoyed the company of a great ichthyologist. In short, Dr. Breder became not only a source of encyclopedic information, but also a great inspiration to our entire staff and are visiting investigators.
My discussions with Dr. Breder were most helpful in managing not only the problems of running the Laboratory, most of which were handled tactfully and efficiently led by my alter ego, Patricia Morissey, but also the larger issues of maintaining a balance between basic and applied research. Both of us agreed that the programs that would generate lasting recognition for our Laboratory were in the area of basic research for which support at that time was forthcoming from both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR). But this support was hardly enough to meet the increasing expenses of our growing Laboratory. We were fortunate, therefore, to obtain financial assistance from a number of generous Mote Marine Laboratory members as well as from several private foundations. We also received support from several commercial companies geared to the application of some of the basic research programs we sponsored.
In later years, my conversations with Dr. Breder touched on the philosophy of science and the high priority each of us placed on scientific integrity. He was an admitted agnostic, but I always believed, to paraphrase a statement that Emma Darwin made about her Charles, "Charles Breder did not believe in God, but God believed in Charles M. Breder, Jr.".
The candle of Dr. Breder’s life burned low in his final years while Priscilla tenderly cared for him, and on a quiet day in late October 1983, it flickered and went out. For those who knew him, his life will continue to be an inspiration and his immortality is assured in his achievements and distinguished record of more than 160 publications.