Mary Dora Rogick (October 7, 1906 – October 26, 1964) was an American

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

. In 1935 she joined the

College of New Rochelle The College of New Rochelle (CNR) was a private Catholic college with its main campus in New Rochelle, New York, but also in Australia, England, and Germany. It was founded as the College of St. Angela by Mother Irene Gill, OSU of the Ursuline ...

in New York, where she spent her career as a professor and researcher. She was a specialist in the taxonomy and ecology of

bryozoa Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about long, they have a special feeding structure called a ...

, a phylum of aquatic invertebrate animals.

Family life

Rogick was born in East Sandy, Pennsylvania, on October 7, 1906, to Nicholas and Sara Rogic, immigrants from

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. Of the Rogics’ four children, only Mary survived into adulthood.

Education

Rogick went to school in

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area. It is loc ...

, then went on to earn her A.B. in 1929 and A.M. in 1930 from the

University of Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kn ...

and the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

. She earned her PhD from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...

in 1934, under

Raymond C. Osburn Raymond Carroll Osburn (January 4, 1872 – August 6, 1955) was an American zoologist. Biography Osburn was born on January 4, 1872, in Newark, Ohio. In 1898, he received his bachelor's degree from the Ohio State University, and continued there ...

. Her dissertation concerned "freshwater Bryozoa of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

, doing research at the University of Ohio summer biological station at Put-in Bay, Ohio." Through her PhD work, she developed her drawing talents to such an extent that other colleagues would later ask her to provide bryozoa

illustrations An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vide ...

for them. In addition, she prepared the illustrations for Dr. Osburn's book about bryozoa.

Research and teaching

In 1935, Rogick's first official position was teaching invertebrate biology at the College of New Rochelle where she remained for the rest of her life, eventually being promoted to professor. Despite her heavy teaching load and small salary, she arranged funding "from 1954 to 1961 by the National Science Foundation to study Antarctic Bryozoa." She donated her collection of books and reprints about bryozoology to the Marine Biology Laboratory at

Woods Hole, Massachusetts Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 ...

, and they are still kept as the Rogick Collection. A collection of Rogick's classroom plans, laboratory notes, lists, and a bibliographic card index from her research on Bryozoa is archived at the Smithsonian Institution. She was diagnosed with cancer and died on October 26, 1964.

Memberships

* American Association for the Advancement of Science (Fellow) * Marine Biology Laboratory at

* New York Academy of Sciences * Academy of Antarctic Bryozoa * Phi Beta Kappa * Sigma Xi

Selected works

* Rogick, M. D. (1931). Studies on the comparative histology of the digestive tube of certain teleost fishes II. A minnow (Campostoma anomalum). ''Journal of Morphology'', ''52''(1), 1-25. * Rogick, M. D. (1934). Additions to North American freshwater Bryozoa. *Rogick, M. D. (1935). Studies of Freshwater Bryozoa. III, The Development of Lophopodella carteri var. typica. * Rogick, M. D. (1945). Studies on Fresh-Water Bryozoa. XVI. Fredericella australiensis var. browni, n. var. ''The Biological Bulletin'', ''89''(3), 215-228. * Rogick, M. D. (1945). Studies on marine Bryozoa. I. Aeverrillia setigera (Hincks) 1887. ''The Biological Bulletin'', ''89''(3), 201-214. * Rogick, M. D. (1956). Studies on Marine Bryozoa. VII, Hippothoa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogick, Mary Dora 1906 births 1964 deaths 20th-century American zoologists College of New Rochelle faculty Deaths from cancer in New York (state) 20th-century American women scientists American women academics