July 4, 1925–October 16, 2000

BY ARNOLD L. DEMAIN AND RALPH F. WOLFE

MARVIN P. BRYANT, EMERITUS professor of microbiology at the University of Illinois, died on October 16, 2000, at his home in Savoy. Illinois, at the age of 75. Marv was born on July 4, 1925, to Melvin Berry and Emna Louise Bucklin Bryant. He was raised on the edge of the foothills in Boise, Idaho, with summer and fall excursions to the family ranch next to the primitive area of the Middlefork of the Salmon River. The environment provided by the area, especially the associations with horses and various ruminants, the freedom and support he received from his parents, and his natural inclination toward biology directed him toward his then unknown goal of doing research in rumen microbiology.

After serving in the U.S. Air Corps during World War II he vowed in 1945 that he would never leave the mountain area, and he completed his diploma at Boise Junior College. In 1946 Marv married Margaret Amelia Betebenna. He started in forestry and switched to soils. Counseling by botany professor Donald Obee moved him into bacteriology and propelled him toward Washington State College in Pullman. According to Marv, his reticence to meet the public and his belief that research and publications alone would