In 1898, he received his bachelor's degree from the Ohio State University, and continued there, earning his master's two years later.
After he got the master's degree, he got a position as instructor of biology and embryology at Starling Medical College.
For two years he served under the same title at Connecticut College for Women, and was a professor of zoology and entomology department chairman at Ohio State University.
One of his PhD students was Mary Dora Rogick who became a specialist in the taxonomy and ecology of bryozoa, a phylum of aquatic invertebrate animals.
From 1945 to 1952 he was a research associate on bryozoa at the Allan Hancock Foundation of the University of Southern California.