C. A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory

C.A. “Addison” Pound, Jr., for whom the Human Identification Laboratory is named, was the president of Baird Hardware, a major wholesale/retail hardware enterprise in Gainesville for over 90 years. As was his father before him, Addison Pound was a civic and business leader in Gainesville all his life. Mr. Pound was a 1935 graduate of the University of Florida, with a major in electrical engineering. He died in 2006 at the age of 91.

Mr. Pound’s generous endowment of the Human Identification Laboratory in 1991 was a result of his close personal relationship with, and respect for, the late Dr. William R. Maples, a pioneer in the field of forensic anthropology and a distinguished service professor at the University of Florida.

The primary mission of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory is to provide forensic anthropology services for medical examiners and coroners. The laboratory also provides anthropological, legal and technical laboratory-based education and training to graduate students, and professionals in the fields of anthropology, medicine, medicolegal death investigation, and law enforcement. The laboratory and its faculty and graduate analysts serve as a resource for pathologists, scientists and technical experts practicing in communities and various jurisdictions in the state of Florida. The C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory is an element of the William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine at the University of Florida.

Mr. Pound and his family have, over the years, made other generous contributions to the UF. His father made the first major gift toward the construction of the first on-campus building for the Florida Museum of Natural History. Scholarships in the College of Business Administration and the College of Engineering were also established by the Pound family.