The life of Dean Emeritus Carl Emil Seashore is distinctly inspiring to the scientist who constantly feels his lack of apparatus, of funds and of time to devote to productive scholarship. For that reason, this brief account will be a description of the man rather than a detailed account of his scientific achievements. Perhaps none of Dean Seashore's talents stood out singly as extraordinary, but they comprised a group which was rare in effectiveness and balance. He enjoyed both work and play and lived in an atmosphere of intellectual, moral, social, artistic and religious pursuits. He was a whole man.

There is nothing in his early career to indicate his distinguished future. He came to this country at the age of three. He was a farmer's boy in Iowa . He attended country school. He graduated from a small college, Gustavus Adolphus, in 1891, at the age of 25. He changed his major interest after he became a graduate student at Yale, spending four years for his Ph.D. degree. He remained at Yale for two years more as an assistant in psychology, and then accepted the position of assistant professor at the University of Iowa , at which institution he spent the rest of this life. These geographically limited opportunities proved sufficient, for Dean Seashore found a university growing into the stature of productive scholarship, and this gave appropriate soil to his talents. He became probably the most distinguished Dean of graduate work in America . He had very definite interest in music, shown in his college years by the playing of the organ and leadership of a chorus, and in mature years by distinguished and unique contributions to the psychology of music. He received many honors, among them election to the National Academy of Sciences and the award of seven honorary doctor's degrees. His scientific record can readily be found in national and international biographies.

Dean Seashore's mind at work was an interesting one. There is apparently a great difference between a young mind which constantly and eagerly looks forward, and a mind which has grown old and is wearied by the experience of life. In this meaning, at 83, Dean Seashore's mind had not grown old, for he retained all the eagerness and interest of youth and remained productive to the end. To think creatively was as natural for him as is imagination for a child. Abstract ideas were interesting, but did not have a strong appeal. At the beginning of his graduate work, he thought of specializing in philosophy, but its abstractions led away from the center of his interest, the individual. Psychology seemed to be in better accord with his inclinations, for he was always practical. Dean Seashore found the procedure by which his mind could most effectively create. He devoted his evenings to extensive reading and constructive thinking. From this crucible came the precious ideas to be formulated and perhaps applied the very next day. This speed was made possible bye the natural clarity of his mind. When he approached a subject he did not have the common difficulty of becoming immersed in a jumble of facts and ideas. He kept his mind above them, cultivating an unusual power of separating out the essentials and neglecting the remainder. He was a master in the economy of thought.

Dean Seashore was distinctly a humanitarian, but with the focus of his interest in the individual. Thousands of graduate students will remember his deep interest in their personal and intellectual problems. He was indeed very anxious to make a contribution to their lives, if a suitable occasion arose. He regarded the opportunity of counseling graduate students as one of the most rewarding of all his activities at Iowa .

Some of his more personal traits were even more exemplary, if that be possible. He was always interested in your problems of a creative nature. He never entered into unpleasant disputations. If there was any good, he always thought of that. He would not permit friendship to modify an accurately worded recommendation written for a former student or a friend. He had a profound religious faith which outran his knowledge and was not knowingly shaped by any doctrine. He was distinctly social being. He loved his golf, but not work in his garden. His stature did not draw him away from the above men, but rather enabled him to work for them at all their levels of attainment, from the highest to the lowest.

The University of Iowa gave Dean Seashore a splendid opportunity, and so did the home, under the very unusual management of Mrs. Roberta Seashore. Thus home was to him not a place of active responsibility as much as freedom to follow his intellectual interests. The environment did not make the man, but surely Dean Seashore's life was greatly aided by the smoothness of its organization. The reader will have difficulty in recognizing that Dean Seashore was truly a great man. A description of him needs no superlatives for the simple facts show his strength and influence. He was an inspiring example of effective productiveness in scientific scholarship.

-Memorial of Dr. Seashore (1866-1949) published in the Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science, 57:53-54. All rights reserved.

More about Dr. Seashore

• Biography from Gustavus Adolphus College
• Engines of Our Ingenuity Episode No. 1736 on Dr. Seashores Musical Abilities Test