The Lasting Legacy of “Tug” Juday: 1918-2013

Eugene "Tug" Juday - 1918-2013
Eugene “Tug” Juday – 1918-2013

This Monday, March 18th, the Center for Limnology lost a dear friend. Eugene Thurston “Tug” Juday passed away at Grace Lodge in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, which is also the city where he was born. While Tug served in the South Pacific during World War II and raised a family in Illinois, he never really left the Northwoods. It was a love that, his obituary says, “persisted and spilled over to the rest of his growing family.” It was also a love that led to a long and fruitful collaboration with the Center for Limnology.
It is not an overstatement to say that the Center for Limnology would be a much-diminished place without our relationship with the Juday family. Chancey Juday, along with E.A. Birge, essentially founded modern limnology here on the shores of Lake Mendota and established Trout Lake Station amid the beautiful lakes of Vilas County.
But Tug Juday didn’t rest on the laurels of his great* uncle’s legacy, he built his own. The generosity of Tug and his family allowed the CFL to establish a fellowship program for summer undergraduate students at Trout Lake Station. Each summer, a handful of students, known as “Juday Fellows,” are able to get out of the classroom, live on station and get first-hand experience conducting freshwater research – an unique opportunity for young scientists.
“Tug once told me that he thought his most important investments were in people,” says CFL director, Steve Carpenter. “The Juday fellowships certainly changed the lives and furthered the careers of many aspiring young scientists.”
Eugene "Tug" Juday at the unveiling of the new conference facility.
Eugene “Tug” Juday at the unveiling of the new conference facility.

Earlier this year, the Tug Juday Conference Facility was completed at Trout Lake Station. Station director, Tim Kratz, says that the facility will not only be used as a place for faculty, students and staff to meet, it will also be a resource for the surrounding community. Kratz envisions offering a place for scientists to share their research with the public, school groups to learn about freshwater resources, or lake associations to hold their meetings. With the facility, Tug has enabled residents and visitors to deepen their knowledge of and relationship with the Northwoods he loved so much.
Although he didn’t pursue a career in freshwater sciences, Tug stayed interested and involved in the field. “There’s something in the genes of that family that just makes them interested in nature,” says John Magnuson, professor emeritus and former director of both the Center for Limnology and Trout Lake Station. “Tug was an avid measurer,” Magnuson says, noting that he diligently kept records of things like water temperature and water level on Anderson Lake.
Eugene "Tug" Juday on Anderson Lake
Eugene “Tug” Juday on Anderson Lake, June 1983.

Steve Carpenter recalls talking to Tug about Anderson Lake and Tug mentioning an exposed rock off of his pier that was well above water due to the current drought. “Tug remembered that the rock was still underwater during the dry times of the Dust Bowl,” Carpenter says, “he remembered hitting his canoe paddle on it. Knowledge like that is a unique and valuable thing.”
"Tug" Juday and his extended family in front of Juday House, which provides lodging for researchers and students at Trout Lake Station.
“Tug” Juday and his extended family in front of Juday House, which provides lodging for researchers and students at Trout Lake Station.

Today the Juday name can be found all over the Center for Limnology, from Juday House and the Juday Conference Facility at Trout Lake, to the Juday Data Fund and the Juday Fellowships. It was a connection established by Chancey, one of the founding fathers of limnology, but we owe its continued existence to support from his family, and our good friend, his nephew, Tug.
“Tug Juday leaves a lasting legacy in limnology,” says Steve Carpenter. “One that will go on forever.”
Arbor Vitae-Woodruff 3rd Graders line up outside the Tug Juday Conference Facility, one of the first (but not the last!) groups to take advantage of Tug Juday's lasting legacy.
Arbor Vitae-Woodruff 3rd Graders line up outside the Tug Juday Conference Facility, one of the first (but not the last!) groups to take advantage of Tug Juday’s lasting legacy.

*Correction: Tug’s relationship to Chancey, has been clarified as being the nephew of Chancey.