Emmett M. Hall, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to R. Merton Love at spring Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium..Iain MacLean, University Secretary, prepares to hood Dr. Love. Orchestra members in pit in foreground.

Bio/Historical Note: Robert Merton Love was born in 1909 in Tantallon, Saskatchewan. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Saskatchewan, the former with honors. In 1935 Love graduated magna cum laude with a Ph.D. in genetics from McGill University. Then he joined the Canada Department of Agriculture where his research helped develop a rust-resistant bread wheat. Love joined the UC Davis faculty in 1940. He developed a distinguished career of research, teaching, extension, and public service and served as Chairman of the Department of Agronomy and Range Science from 1959 to 1970. During his tenure he instigated the name change of the department to include “Range Science” after the department enlarged its program in that direction. Love was known as a department chair who strongly and fairly supported his faculty and the department's mission to serve California agriculture. Following his retirement in 1976, Love was chair of the Graduate Group in Ecology (the largest graduate group on campus) and chair of the Graduate Group in Range and Wildlands Science until 1988. His legacy as a graduate group chair is the annual R. Merton Love award honoring the student producing the finest Ph.D. dissertation in ecology. Love died in Davis, California, in 1994 at age 85.