Early life and education Ralph Vary Chamberlin was born on January 3, 1879, in
Salt Lake City, Utah, to parents William Henry Chamberlin, a prominent builder and contractor, and Eliza Frances Chamberlin (née Brown). Chamberlin traced his paternal lineage to an English immigrant settling in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638, and his maternal lineage to an old
Pennsylvania Dutch family. Born to
Mormon parents, the young Chamberlin attended
Latter-day Saints' High School, His brother
William, the eldest of 12 children, also shared Ralph's scientific interests and would later teach alongside him. Ralph attended the
University of Utah, graduating with a B.S. degree in 1898, and subsequently spent four years teaching high school and some college-level courses in biology as well as geology, chemistry, physics, Latin, and German at
Latter-day Saints' University. and was a member of the
Gamma Alpha fraternity and
Sigma Xi honor society. He studied under entomologist
John Henry Comstock and earned his doctorate in 1904. Zoologist
Thomas H. Montgomery regarded Chamberlin's monograph as one of "decided importance" in using the structure of
pedipalps (male reproductive organs) to help define genera, and in its detailed descriptions of species.
Early career: University of Utah After returning from Cornell, Chamberlin was hired by the University of Utah, where he worked from 1904 to 1908, as an assistant professor (19041905) then full professor. He soon began improving biology courses, which at the time were only of high school grade, to collegiate standards, and introduced new courses in vertebrate
histology and
embryology. He was the first dean of
University of Utah School of Medicine, serving from 1905 to 1907. During the summer of 1906, his plans to teach a summer course in embryology at the
University of Chicago were cancelled when he suffered a serious accident in a fall, breaking two leg bones and severing an artery in his leg. In 1907, university officials decided to merge the medical school into an existing department, which made Chamberlin's deanship obsolete. He resigned as dean in May, 1907, although remained a faculty member. Cardiff filed suit for $350, which a court initially decided Chamberlin must pay, and Chamberlin's wages were garnished. The two became estranged and uncommunicative. There had been tension between them for some time—Chamberlin's supporters claimed Cardiff was involved in his dismissal as dean—and the
Salt Lake Tribune noted "friction between the two men, of a different nature and not entirely due to financial matters, arose even before Professor Cardiff received his appointment". In July, upon appeal, the suit was overturned and Cardiff ordered to pay costs. Chamberlin had by then secured a job at Brigham Young University.
Brigham Young University In 1908, Chamberlin was hired to lead the Biology Department at
Brigham Young University (BYU), a university owned and operated by
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), during a period which BYU president
George H. Brimhall sought to increase its academic standing. LDS College professor J. H. Paul, in a letter to Brimhall, had written Chamberlin was "one of the world's foremost naturalists, though, I think, he is only about 28 years of age. I have not met his equal ... We must not let him drift away". Chamberlin oversaw expanded biology course offerings and led insect-collecting trips with students. Chamberlin joined a pair of newly hired brothers on the faculty,
Joseph and Henry Peterson, who taught psychology and education. Chamberlin and the two Petersons worked to increase the intellectual standing of the university. In 1909 Chamberlin's own brother
William H. Chamberlin was hired to teach philosophy. The four academics, all active members of the Church, were known for teaching modern scientific and philosophic ideas and encouraging lively debate and discussion. The Chamberlins and Petersons held the belief that the
theory of evolution was compatible with religious views, and promoted
historical criticism of the Bible, the view that the writings contained should be viewed from the context of the time: Ralph Chamberlin published essays in the
White and Blue, BYU's student newspaper, arguing that Hebrew legends and historical writings were not to be taken literally. In an essay titled "
Some Early Hebrew Legends" Chamberlin concluded: "Only the childish and immature mind can lose by learning that much in the Old Testament is poetical and that some of the stories are not true historically." In early 1911 Ralph Chamberlin and the Peterson brothers were offered a choice to either stop teaching evolution or lose their jobs. The three professors were popular among students and faculty, who denied that the teaching of evolution was destroying their faith. A student petition in support of the professors signed by over 80% of the student body was sent to the administration, and then to local newspapers. Rather than change their teachings, the three accused professors resigned in 1911, while William Chamberlin remained for another five years. In 1910, Chamberlin was elected a
fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Pennsylvania and Harvard After leaving Brigham Young, Chamberlin was employed as a lecturer and George Leib Harrison Foundation research fellow at the
University of Pennsylvania from 1911 to 1913. From March 1913 to December 31, 1925, he was the Curator of Arachnids, Myriapods, and Worms at the
Museum of Comparative Zoology at
Harvard University, where many of his scientific contributions were made. Here his publications included surveys of all known millipedes of Central America and the West Indies; and descriptions of animals collected by the
Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913–1916); by Stanford and Yale expeditions to South America; and by various expeditions of the
USS Albatross. He was elected a member of the
American Society of Naturalists and the
American Society of Zoologists in 1914, and in 1919 served as second vice-president of the
Entomological Society of America. He served as a technical expert for the U.S. Horticultural Board and
U.S. Biological Survey from 1923 until the mid-1930s.
Return to Utah Chamberlin returned to the University of Utah in 1925, where he was made head of the departments of zoology and botany. When he arrived, the faculty consisted of one zoologist, one botanist, and an instructor. He soon began expanding the size and diversity of the biology program, and by the time of his retirement the faculty consisted of 16 professors, seven instructors, and three special lecturers. He was the university's most celebrated scientist according to
Sterling M. McMurrin, and his course on evolution was among the most popular on campus. He established the journal
Biological Series of the University of Utah and supervised the graduate work of several students who would go on to distinguished careers, including
Willis J. Gertsch,
Wilton Ivie,
William H. Behle and
Stephen D. Durrant; the latter three would later join Chamberlin as faculty members. From 1938 to 1939 he took a year-long sabbatical, during which he studied in European universities and museums, presided over a section of the International Congresses of Entomology in Berlin, and later studied biology and archaeology in Mexico and South America. In 1942 he received an honorary
Doctor of Science from the University of Utah. He retired in 1948, and in 1957, an honor ceremony was held by the Utah
Phi Sigma Society in which a portrait of Chamberlin painted by
Alvin L. Gittins was donated to the university and a book of commemorative letters produced. In 1960 the University of Utah Alumni Association awarded Chamberlin its Founders Day Award for Distinguished Alumni, the university's highest honor. Chamberlin was noted by colleagues at Utah for being a lifelong champion of the
scientific method and instilling in his students ideas that natural processes must be used to explain human existence.
Angus and Grace Woodbury wrote that one of his greatest cultural contributions was his ability "to lead the naive student with fixed religious convictions gently around that wide gulf that separated him from the trained scientific mind without pushing him over the precipice of despair and illusion." His influence continued as his students became teachers, gradually increasing societal understanding of evolution and
naturalistic perspectives. His colleague and former student Stephen Durrant stated "by word, and especially by precept, he taught us diligence, inquisitiveness, love of truth, and especially scientific honesty". Durrant compared Chamberlin to noted biologists such as
Spencer Fullerton Baird and
C. Hart Merriam in the scope of his contributions science.
Personal life and death On July 9, 1899, Chamberlin married Daisy Ferguson of Salt Lake City, with whom he had four children: Beth, Ralph, Della, and Ruth. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1910. On June 28, 1922, he married Edith Simons, also of Salt Lake, and with whom he had six children: Eliot, Frances, Helen, Shirley, Edith, and Martha Sue. His son
Eliot became a mathematician and 40-year professor at the University of Utah. Chamberlin's second wife died in 1965, and Chamberlin himself died in Salt Lake City after a short illness on October 31, 1967, at the age of 88. He was survived by his 10 children, 28 grandchildren, and 36 great-grandchildren. ==Research==