Richard Brewer: A Tribute

What did he do?

This morning, as I was reflecting on how to tie up the ends of this blog before it is too late, it occurred to me that one of the friends I usually meet for lunch about once a week had played a significant role in the discoveries I have presented in this blog.  It may come as a surprise to him as much as to me because we are usually on opposite ends of the creation/evolution debate.  The debate is seldom discussed as our entrenched positions are usually ignored, possibly out of mutual respect.

Richard Brewer joined the Western Michigan University faculty in 1959, a year before I did in 1960.  We both retired in 1996, but he had a much more productive record in research, publishing, and teaching.  It was so much so that at least once I had nominated him for the Distinguished Faculty Scholar award.  You can verify his many contributions by examining his website - richardbrewer.org - and find such things as his most recent book on the Land Conservancy or the land trust movement.

He started as a ornithologist and had a prominent role as editor and contributor of Breeding Birds of Michigan.  His texts and lab manuals  on Ecology published by Saunders had considerable success.  He was an original and long time board  member of the Kalamazoo Nature Center as well as Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy.  He was a dedicated teacher and the major professor of many ecology graduate students.  He was instrumental in arranging for the deposit of the library of an early American ecologist into the C. Adams Center Collection of Western Michigan University Library, the collection was for many years housed in the Biology Department.

So how did that help my discoveries related to the Pogonophora?

The Adams Center was the vehicle for publishing a periodical, Occasional Papers of the C. C. Adams Center for many years.  It provided a vehicle for subscription exchanges with other science periodicals, including a Norwegian periodical, Sarsia.  The two periodicals were not likely to be encountered in most libraries.  So it is unlikely that, in their absence, I would have seen the three research papers published in Sarsia by M. Webb, two of which helped me see the extreme longevity of the group, and the other helped show the connection to the Hemichordates.

Why talk about this now?

I have a realization that I won't live in the earthly realm forever.  In fact, I am certain that God has extended my stay here to help others realize that evolution and natural selection are part of His plan, and that I have a role in helping others see that is true.  I am not the only one to see that God and evolution share that relationship.  But it seems to me that I have overwhelming evidence that my findings are far beyond coincidence and serendipity.

The role that God had in my findings is apparent to me, but I have not given all the evidence and somewhat hoped to leave it for posthumous publication of details.  How I know that is mysteriously tied up in the faith, reason, knowledge of scripture, and knowledge of nature that God has given me.  God is equally generous with his gifts to others.  The gentleness of God is infinite like God's love and shown by how good many are that live admirable lives without recognizing God.

Joseph G. Engemann    Kalamazoo, Michigan    February 25, 2017