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Eugene Schwartz was born in Liegnitz, Silesia, on April 21, 1844. As a boy he became interested in entomology. He was a student at the University of Breslau and the University of Leipzig. In December 1872, Eugene came to the United States and became an assistant to H. A. Hagen at Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1874, he went with H. G. Hubbard to Detroit, where they founded the Detroit Scientific Association and built up a collection of insects. With Hubbard, he made explorations into Florida and the Lake Superior region and published papers on the Coleoptera of those areas. In the summer of 1878, he was taken on as an assistant to C. V. Riley in Washington, D.C., in the closing work of the U.S. Entomological Commission, and then secured a position in November with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Although he was paid by Agriculture for many years, he worked in the U.S. National Museum as the curator of Coleoptera. He made numerous expeditions covering practically all sections of the United States and also spent months in Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, and Cuba. Eugene was one of the most learned entomologists in the United States. He was an exceedingly close observer, a great collector, and a very broad student of entomology, attracted to both the taxonomic and biological sides of insects. He was elected to the Washington Biologists’ Field Club in 1903. He served as president from 1911 to 1913. Eugene died in 1928 and his ashes were scattered on Plummers Island. A memorial plaque was installed on the Island in tribute to this great naturalist.