Carl Ortwin Sauer (December 24, 1889 – July 18, 1975) was an American geographer. Sauer was a professor of geography at the University of California at Berkeley from 1923 until becoming professor emeritus in 1957. He has been called "the dean of American historical geography" and he was instrumental in the early development of the geography graduate school at Berkeley. One of his best known works was Agricultural Origins and Dispersals (1952). In 1927, Carl Sauer wrote the article "Recent Developments in Cultural Geography," which considered how cultural landscapes are made up of "the forms superimposed on the physical landscape." Family and education Sauer was born December 24, 1889, in Warrenton, Missouri, the son of German-born William Albert Sauer and Rosseta J. Vosholl. As a child he was sent to study in Germany for five years. He later attended Central Wesleyan College where his father served as the school botanist and taught music and French. The elder Sauer was interested in history and geography and felt there was a strong relationship between the two fields of study. His outlook most likely had a strong influence on his son's perspective. After graduating in 1908, Sauer studied geology briefly at Northwestern University and then moved to the University of Chicago to study geography. There he was influenced by geologist Rollin D. Salisbury and botanist Henry C. Cowles. Sauer wrote his dissertation on the geography of the Ozark highlands (published in 1920) and received his doctorate degree in 1915. Sauer married Laura Lorena Schowengerdt on December 30, 1913; they had two children, a daughter and a son. Their son, Jonathan D. Sauer, became a professor of geography, specializing in plant geography. Career In 1915 Sauer joined the University of Michigan as an instructor in geography and was promoted to full professor in 1922. While at Michigan he became involved in public land use policy. He became concerned about the clear-cutting of pine forests in the state and the resulting ecological harm. In 1922 he played a major role in the establishment of the Michigan Land Economic Survey. In 1923 Sauer left Michigan to become a professor of geography and founding chairman of the Geography Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He replaced Ruliff S. Holway as professor. He served as chair for more than thirty years, creating a distinctive American school of geography. Shortly after his arrival he began a program of