A memorial service for Bill Evangelou, professor of agronomy, took place Friday morning in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

Evangelou died of a heart attack in his home March 24.

“Dr. Evangelou was seen as an active, strong member of our faculty. We were just in shock [Monday] that he died the day before,” said Bob Horton, professor of agronomy.

Evangelou began working at Iowa State three years ago. His research specialty was soil and water physical chemistry.

During that time, he developed a strong graduate program in soil chemistry, said Michael Thompson, associate professor of agronomy. He said Evangelou’s death has left a hole in the department that will be hard to fill.

“It’s quite a loss to our grad program and our soil chemistry program,” Thompson said. “We don’t know what we’re going to do. I’m sure we’re going to find a way to carry on the soil chemistry program.”

Evangelou was primarily involved with the graduate program, teaching soil chemistry and water resources courses. His published work included two advanced textbooks and more than 150 scientific articles in journals and national and international conference proceedings.

Evangelou also received the M. L. Jackson Award from the Soil Science Society of America for his outstanding research in soil science.

Thompson said students working in Evangelou’s research group are among those most affected by his passing.

Horton said he thinks Evangelou’s death has caused many in the Agronomy Department to rethink their priorities.

He said he thinks many people have stepped back from just focusing on their projects and are refocusing on their relationships.

Evangelou is survived by his wife, Shelly, his daughter and his son.

“He was an excellent scientist both as a researcher and a teacher,” Horton said. He will be remembered for attending many seminars and always having questions and comments for the students presenting information.

“I guess there’s no way to describe how we’re responding because it’s so sudden and unexpected,” Thompson said.