EB Roessler served on the City Council from 7/20/1951 to 4/20/1957.
He co-authored a book with Maynard Amerine entitled "Wines—Their Sensory Evaluation" that established the modern wine critic nomenclature, among other things. Prior to their book, almost all wine writing consisted of anthropomorphic description: "course," "masculine," "noble." Their book argued that wines should be described in a food-based nomenclature, using words describing specific fruits, textures, vegetables, etc. See Why wine writers talk that way for some more.
(excerpt from UC Davis Magazine)
Roessler, Edward Biffer (1902-1993)
UC Davis Professor of Mathematics and statistician at the Experiment Station working closely with enologists.
Subject: Viticulture and Enology
Namesake: Roessler Hall
Renaissance man. Reading about Edward Roessler is like reading about a whole roomful of people. In a University of California career that spanned 60 years, Roessler taught mathematics and statistics, co-authored a book with Maynard Amerine on the sensory evaluation of wine (and was a wine judge for the California State Fair for 20 years), was the architect for a number of Davis homes (five of them on College Park), played the violin, wrote another book (this one a textbook on probability and statistics), chaired the Department of Mathematics and was UC's dean of University Extension. And his contributions weren't confined to campus: At various times Roessler was the assessor for the City of Davis, a member of both the Planning Commission and the Davis City Council, an elder of the Davis Community Church and president of the Rotary Club; in 1957, he received the C.A. Covell Trophy for Community Service.
Known as a gifted teacher whose sense of humor made the oft-times difficult subject of mathematics accessible to his students, in 1978 Roessler was recognized by his Academic Senate colleagues with the Distinguished Teaching Award — eight years after he had 'officially' retired (he continued to teach part time until 1989). Speaking at a symposium honoring the teaching award recipients, Roessler noted that lectures should be presented with spirit: "Some of us shout so loudly in class that we keep the students awake," he joked.
In 1972 he was surprised to learn "reputedly by overhearing the news at a cocktail party" that the regents had honored his contributions by naming the campus's newest physics building Roessler Hall. "It's not an awfully big building, you know," he was reported to have remarked modestly. "But," he noted, "it is a nice little building." And indeed it is.
An avid and expert gardener, he cultivated camellias (no small feat in Davis!), roses, fruit trees, and more in a beautiful landscape at his home in College Park.
