Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/234

demic ranks to the headship of his department, a position he later resigned so as to give more of his time to rounding out his major research problems and also to limit his instruction to his chosen field, plant taxonomy and ecology.

From the latest volumes of “Who’s Who in America” and “American Men of Science” we quote the following interesting facts about professor Shimek: He was born near Sheyville, Iowa, on June 25, 1851. He was honorary chairman of the geological section of the Scientific Congress held in Prague in 1914; honorary member of the Botanical Society of Bohemia; of the Natural History Society of Prague; fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, vice-president of the Botanical Section in 1911; member of the Geological Society of America; ex-president of the Iowa Academy of Sciences; member of the Botanical Society of America; member of the Ecological Society of America; president of the Iowa Park and Forestry Association in 1910 and corresponding member of several scientific academies. He is a member of the Sigma Xi and the author of about 140 scientific papers published in various periodicals. He resides in Iowa City, Iowa.

Msgr. J. B. Dudek, Secret Chamberlain to His Holiness, Pope Pius XI.; Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre; Chancellor of the Diocese of Oklahoma; Pastor of the Church of St. John Nepomuk, Yukon, Oklahoma, is a youthful clergyman, a convert to the Catholic Church whose personal tastes do not incline toward publicity. In fact, despite his unusual attainments, he has, thus far, except to a limited circle, remained practically unknown. The Student Life staff, which spares neither time nor expense in securing information to write an authoritative biography in every instance, feels particulary elated over the fact that it is the first to publish the life of the eminent Msgr. J. B. Dudek.

The subject of our sketch, John Bohumil Dudek, was born February 1, 1890 at Schuyler, Nebraska. His parents, both natives of Czechoslovakia, came to America in the 70’s and were married in Nebraska in 1888. The father, being of old Hussite stock, and the mother, baptized a Catholic in infancy but never having been reared in the faith, the family attended the Presbyterian church, in which the eldest son was christened, receiving the name Jan Bohumil.

The family moved to Kingfisher, Oklahoma, in 1894, where the future Father Dudek received his early education in the public schools. In 1903 he entered the Central State Normal School at Edmond, Oklahoma, where, having shown some talent for the piano, he specialized in music. It was the ambition of his parents that he become a concert musician. Divine Providence, however, had