GEIGER, Brother Donald Raymond S.M.

Brother Donald Raymond Geiger, SM, died on December 29, 2020, in Dayton, Ohio, at the age of 87 with 68 years of

religious profession in the Society of Mary.

Brother Donald was born in Dayton, Ohio, on February 27, 1933, in Dayton, Ohio, to the late Raymond and Hedwig (Weghorst) Geiger. Bro. Don professed First Vows in 1952 and Perpetual Vows on August 15, 1956.

Bro. Don earned a BS in Biology from the University of Dayton, an MS in Botany and a Ph.D in Plant Physiology from The Ohio State University.

Bro. Geiger ministered as a teacher at Cathedral Latin High School in Cleveland and as a professor at the University of Dayton for 44 years. Bro. Donald Geiger will be remembered as a Professor, Scientist, Environmentalist and Marianist

Brother.

Services: Due to the current high rate of COVID-19 infection and its impact on the Marianist Brothers, we regret that

services will be Private. Please join the Live-Streaming of the Mass of Christian Burial for Bro. Don at 10:30 am, Saturday, Jan. 9. Go to https://qac-ohio.org and click on the blue "Live Streaming QAC Masses" button, then look for the funeral Mass. GLICKLER FUNERAL HOME handling arrangements.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Dayton Daily News on Jan. 7, 2021.

Memories and Condolences
for Donald GEIGER

Sponsored by Glickler Funeral Home & Cremation Service.

4 Entries

Bob Pierce

March 29, 2021

I read in the Spring 2021 edition of the University of Dayton Magazine, that Brother Don Geiger had died on December 29, 2020. I want to share with all, the profound influence that he had on me and I am certain, many other UD students.

By my senior year (1966) at St. Joseph High School, a Society of Mary school in Cleveland Ohio, I had decided that I wanted to be a marine biologist. I applied to the College of William and Mary, because of its Marine Sciences Program. St. Joe's being an all-male school, we had instructors and coaches that were Fr., Bro, and Mr. We never were aware of the proper salutation based upon level of academic achievement.

Some wise person told me that I should also apply somewhere else and recommended U.D. I was accepted into William and Mary, but since I had applied late, there was no on-campus housing available, and I could only attend if I could live with a relative. All my relatives were in Ohio. Thus, started by education at U.D.

My freshman year I was assigned to Bro. Don Geiger as my faculty advisor. I have no real recollection of our first meeting, but I am sure that we talked about my goals and he advised me on the course I should enroll. I do remember standing in a long line waiting to enroll in first semester courses.

I do have a clear recollection of meeting in Bro. Don's office during my freshman year and discussing my perplexity between God as Creator and Darwinian evolution. Ever-wise, Bro. Don told me that his God was mighty enough that once he got the ball rolling with the first bit of matter, the rest of the formation of the universe and evolution of life on earth could carry on without God's direct, divine intervention. I have held onto that concept throughout my life.

My sophomore year, Bro. Don gave me permission to enroll in his Plant Physiology course, which was only offered occasionally and designated for seniors and grad students. My taking that class saved my bacon my senior year, but that is another story.

Also, during my sophomore year, I decided that I wanted to get a summer job working in the fisheries field. I sent out a lot of "feelers" to agencies and programs around the country and Bro. Don agreed to be a reference for me.

One day Dr. Geiger called me into his office and asked how it was that Ben Drucker with the federal Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, new that he was a Brother. He gently chastised me that I should have referred to him as "Dr. Geiger" when I used him as a reference. Apparently, Ben had called him to discuss the fact that he was going to offer me summer employment at a field station Kodiak Island, Alaska for a study of salmon and that once I was dumped by float plane in the field in April, there was no leaving until I was flown out in late August and there would be no opportunity for me to catch mass every Sunday. Dr. Bro. Don assured him that would not be a moral dilemma.

As the 1968 spring semester came to and end and I prepared to fly to Alaska, Bro. Don asked me to bring him back a dwarf willow shrub from the tundra if I could. I never made it to the tundra region, so I was unable to fulfill his request.

When I returned to U.D. to start my junior year, I visited with Bro. Don and told him that I would like to do some fisheries research. Since the State of Ohio, DNR had just started raising Coho Salmon for release into Lake Erie, I thought that I'd like to study the respiratory metabolism of Coho smolt.

Dr. Geiger's area of scientific research at that time was sucrose translocation in sugar beets - not really a fisheries related concept! Nevertheless, Bro. Don gave me space in his research laboratory in the basement of Sherman Hall, found a high-dollar oxygen monitoring system and thermally-controlled water bath, aquaria and everything else I needed to conduct my research on Coho salmon smolt (which the Ohio DNR was kind enough to supply). Looking back, I assume that the cost of equipment/materials that I needed, came out of his own research budget - but there was never any discussion of funding - he just got what I asked for. Under his oversight, I designed and constructed a "respirometer" in which I could measure how much oxygen the young fish consumed during a 24-hour period.

Also, that year, I remember talking with Bro. Don about doing a double major - Biology and Russian. I first started learning Russian in high school. When I came to U.D. I continued taking courses in Russian at UD. Bro. Don knew me well. The degree for Biology was a Bachelor of Science (BS). The second major would have been a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He pointed out that I would have to take many additional courses in English, history and philosophy to qualify for a BA. Not something that interested me.

After another summer in Alaska, I returned for my senior year and continued my fish studies. During that year, Dr. Geiger prodded me to write and co-authored with me, a technical article on my research which was published in the Journal of the Ohio Academy of Science. At his suggestion, I also made an oral presentation at the annual meeting of the Ohio Academy of Science.

Bro. Geiger also was very influential in my post graduate studies. During my senior year at U.D. I was treated more like a grad student than an undergrad. It was common practice for me to sit in on the weekly biology seminars held in the Biology Department. One such seminar was by a member of the Zoology Department at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. At the conclusion of the seminar, Dr. Geiger introduced me to a Dr. Thomas Wissing, a new member of the staff at the Zoology Department at Miami and suggested I take Dr. Wissing down to his lab and show him my research setup.

Dr. Wissing and I discussed my research for a while. Turned out he had done similar bio-energetic research at the University of Wisconsin for his doctoral degree. One thing led to another and he offered me a scholarship for my Master's work and ultimately my Ph.D. in the Zoology Department at Miami.
Many years after graduation from U.D. and well into my professional career, as I prepared the vegetation lecture for an online Wetland Delineation course, I called him because I was trying to get a better understanding of how plants survived and for some species thrived with roots growing in saturated, anaerobic soils. Bro. Don and I caught up a bit about our lives and then Dr. Geiger discussed the physiology of plant adaptations to water stress and recommended a text to me to gain further knowledge.

Bro. Don was a good and wise man and acted truly more as an elder brother, than simply a faculty advisor. I am certain that over his years at U.D., Bro. Don guided many students through the ups and downs of college life. Dr. Geiger was a man of extraordinary intellect, with a penchant for sharing knowledge and fostering wonder in scientific discovery, no matter what the field.

Jim

January 9, 2021

A tough but great Professor for whom I had great respect.

Bob Toia

January 7, 2021

Bro. Don was my major professor while I worked to complete my MS in Biology (1969-1971). He is the reason I became a biologist, initially thinking that I would teach Biology, but then ultimately switching to being a research biologist. Beside the science that I learned from Don, I learned a number of life lessons as well, not the least of which is to have confidence and trust my own knowledge and skillset. He was a true mentor and friend, and he will be missed.