William E. Ritter



.......... by Joe Hlebica The establishment of Scripps Institution of Oceanography is often attributed to the courage and determination of its first director, William E. Ritter, a man whose motto was "Neglect nothing." Ritter professed a balanced and holistic view of nature, based on a deep interest in philosophy as well as biology, physical science, and mathematics. He was inspired by, in his words, "the vast scale on which things are done in the ocean, and the literally infinite complexity of cause and law there in operation."	Ritter embraced ideas that would later be popularized as ecology. He believed that organisms are best understood in the context of their physical environment, and best studied by specialists working together. These views were a departure from those of many of his contemporaries, who preferred to reduce the natural world to isolated, quantifiable, laboratory examinations of individual organisms. He was convinced "of both the fundamental unity and the fundamental diversity of all nature...that the whole of nature is a system." These progressive beliefs molded Ritter's vision of the oceanographic institution that was to become Scripps. continue...