Earl O'Roke

O'Roke was born in 1887 in Sabetha, Kansas, where he lived on a farm and attended first a rural school, then Sabetha High School.[1][2] He attended the University of Kansas, from which he earned a B.A. in 1912 and a M.A. in 1916 with a thesis titled "Larval trematodes from Kansas fresh-water snails" under the supervision of Bennet M. Allen.[2][3] He received a Ph.D. from the University of California in 1929 with a thesis titled "The morphology transmission, and life history of Haemoproteus lophortyx, a blood parasite of the California valley quail".[2][4]

Following his Ph.D. in 1917, O'Roke joined the zoology faculty at the University of Wyoming, serving as assistant professor of zoology and assistant parasitologist at the University Experiment Station.[1][5] He moved in 1920, joining the faculty of South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts again as assistant professor of zoology.[1][5] In 1927, he left academia to serve as a parasitologist for the California Division of the U.S. Department of Fish and Game.[1] In 1929 he returned to academia as assistant professor of forest zoology at the University of Michigan, where he would stay for the majority of his professional career.[1] He was promoted to associate professor in 1937, and subsequently to professor of forest zoology.[1][5]

O'Roke's research interests were broad. His best-known work was his discovery that the parasite of birds Leucocytozoon was transmitted by black flies.[2] He also is known for his attempts to track deer lungworm through the use of radioactive isotopes.[2]

O'Roke was an active member of various professional scientific societies including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Parasitologists.[2]

O'Roke was married to Cora Ann Morris O'Roke, with whom he had one daughter.[2]