For 26 years, L. Floyd Clarke guided the Department of Zoology and Physiology as chair. He began his career at UW in 1935 and stayed until his retirement in 1976. During his tenure, he founded and was director of UW's Jackson Hole Biological Research Station and developed UW's pre-med program: In addition, he established the Ph.D. program in Zoology and Physiology. His excellent teaching and research skills led to his receiving UW's prestigious George Duke Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Award.

But it is for teaching that former students, many of them now doctors whom he advised in the pre-med program, remember Clarke best. "He stands out as the single best teacher, advisor, and wonderful person among the teachers I had at UW," writes Dr. Herbert R. Brettell.

After Clarke's death in l981, his friends and family established the L. Floyd Clarke Fund in Zoology and Physiology to sponsor speakers, awards, and, ultimately, a professorship.