On October 18, 1968, the University dedicated Stevens Hall. The nearly $1,300,000 structure became the home of the departments of biology, zoology, botany, geology, geography and wildlife management. It also served as the teaching facility for 300 students (undergraduate and graduate) who were studying the natural sciences.
Construction of the building began in 1966 when ground was broken for an $800,000 wing. A $300,000 wing was added in mid-August of 1967. When it was completed, Stevens Hall contained twenty undergraduate laboratories, six special laboratories, three classrooms, twenty-seven offices and research rooms for the Natural Sciences Division Faculty members. Attached to the building via a tunnel was Stevens Auditorium, a lecture hall with seating for 480 students. The auditorium was the largest on campus at that time.
Stevens
Hall is named for Professor O. A. Stevens
who came to the University in 1909 and remained active with the University for
sixty-seven years. During his 67-year career at North Dakota Agricultural College/State
University, he focused on finding better ways to understand and live with nature.
His pioneer efforts in identification of plants and weeds, the habits of bees
and wasps, and banding and monitoring bird migration brought him national and
worldwide recognition as a naturalist.
O. A. Stevens was born on October 17, 1885 on a farm near Blue Rapids, Kansas. As a young man his interest in nature was stirred when he picked up his older sister's botany textbook. By the time he graduated from high school, he had already established a small herbarium and made numerous observations on birds, bees and wasps. Stevens then enrolled at Kansas State College (now Kansas State University) and received his bachelor's degree in agriculture in 1907. Upon his graduation, he was appointed instructor of botany at his alma matter.
Professor Stevens came to North Dakota in 1909 drawn by the new pure seed and drug law as well as the newly created State Seed Laboratory-a combination that created an opening for a seed analyst. He arrived in North Dakota and began his work as a seed analyst and assistant professor of botany at NDAC on September 1, 1909. During his years as a professor, Stevens built a reputation as the world's leading authority on North Dakota plants. He spent the summers traveling throughout the state and collected an average of 800 plant samples. In 1961, Stevens collected 1000 plants during a summer trip to western North Dakota. His research and study of native plants culminated in The Handbook of North Dakota Plants published in 1950. Handbook described and listed more than 1140 species of plants making it the most complete record to date and the major reference for amateur, professional, and international botanists. Stevens continued to study plants, twice updating his book (1961 and 1972) and building up the NDSU Herbarium until it had nearly 40,000 specimens.
Stevens' renown as a botanist was evident early in his career. In 1917, he was conducting an independent study of weeds introduced to America from Europe. He collected twenty-six specimens of lamb's quarters and sent them to the United States National Herbarium for analysis. Dr. Paul Aellen of Basel, Switzerland was also studying lamb's quarters and requested the samples from the U.S. herbarium. The samples requested by Dr. Aellen contained those collected by Stevens and one species had not yet been cataloged or described. Dr. Aellen named the species Stevensii in Stevens' honor.
His
interests expanded into the area of entomology, especially bees and wasps. He
amassed a collection of 12,000 bees and wasps, including a dozen species previously
unrecorded. Stevens received the honor of having several species named after
him including the prosopis stevensi and the dasymntilla stevensi. During an
eleven-year period (1909-1920), he collected bees and wasps native to North
Dakota and documented the flowers the insects visited. The collection is now
housed at the National American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Stevens' studies did not end with botany and entomology, but expanded into ornithology. He served as editor for Inland Bird Banding News and as secretary for eight years of the Inland Bird Banding Association. Stevens also ran a series titled "North Dakota Bird Notes" in the Fargo Forum for ten years and published a set of 250 articles on birds in North and South Dakota Horticulture from 1930 to 1953. His most notable paper on birds and bird banding, titled "The Harris's Sparrow and the study of it by trapping," was co-written with Myron H. Swenk, a fellow bird bander.
Stevens became an associate professor in 1926 and a professor in 1947. In 1951, he was appointed curator and research professor of botany for the North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies. After 47 years of teaching and experiment station work, Stevens retired, but maintained his positions with the Institute.
His retirement was, in fact, not a retirement. Stevens continued to come into the office in order to continue his research, writing and correspondence. Colleagues remember him being in the office as early as 5:30 am and usually in at 7:00 am, an hour earlier than everyone else. When his colleagues threw him a surprise 80th birthday party, one colleague went to get him from the greenhouse and Stevens replied, "Can't you see I'm busy, I don't have time for that kind of nonsense."
Stevens was a remarkable person. He continued his education and in 1923, he received his Master's Degree from NDAC and an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1948. A prolific writer, Stevens published articles in 40 scholarly journals on topics ranging from the study of plants to the expeditions of Audubon. He also found time to be active in the community and participate in professional societies. He was a merit badge examiner for the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls and spent many summers lecturing on natural history at 4-H summer camps. Stevens' biography appeared in "American Men of Science" every year after 1927. He was a member of Sigma Xi; Phi Kappa Phi; the Botanical Society of America; the Wilson Ornithological Club; the American Ornithological Union; a fellow of the American Society for the Advancement of Science; charter member of the Ecological Society of America; honorary member of the Association of Official Seed Analysts; and a recipient of the Pioneer Historian Award from the Red River Historical Society. In 1965, he received an honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the University of North Dakota. In 1974, O.A. Stevens Scholarship was created with awards going to freshmen and juniors.
Stevens remained active at NDSU until he suffered a stroke in 1976. He and his wife moved to California in October 1977 to be closer to their children and to be in a less rigorous climate. Professor Stevens died on January 12, 1979 in Sacramento, California. He was survived by his wife, three children, ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Mrs. Stevens passed away in September 1980.
Architectural Information
Mutchler, Twichell & Lynch, architect.
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University Archives, 701-231-8914 Published by the University Archives, NDSU Last Updated: 8/27/04 |