Lowell Robert Laudon was born on February 4, 1905 to Alfred and Florence Laudon and grew up in southwestern Minnesota in a town named Redwood Falls.  Even from an early age Lowell had a love of nature, a passion that would stay with him for his entire life.  He attended Redwood Fall High School in his hometown which he graduated from in 1923.  After high school Laudon went on to attend the University of Minnesota in 1923 pursuing law.  However, in his first year at Minnesota Laudon sustained an injury causing him to miss many classes.  In fear of failing he dropped out.  He then attended Iowa State Teacher’s College (now UNI) at Cedar Rapids in hopes of becoming a coach.  It was here that Lowell met his future wife, Florence Stanzel.  Seemingly things went better there, but over the summer Laudon took a course with State University of Iowa (SUI, now University of Iowa) professor Joseph Runner that included a field trip to Black Hills.  Lowell enjoyed this course very much and the next year he transferred to SUI switching his major to Geology.

At Iowa, Lowell took a particular interest in the paleontology aspect of geology, and was influenced by such SUI professors as A.O. Thomas.  Thomas studied crinoids and this became the interest of Laudon as well.  Laudon completed his BA in geology in 1928.  After receiving his BA Laudon continued at Iowa to go to graduate school.  He completed his Master’s degree in 1929 with the thesis titled “The Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Northward Extension of the Burlington Limestone.”  He stayed at Iowa to complete a PhD in 1930.  His dissertation was entitled “The Stratigraphy of the Kinderhook Series in Iowa”. Laudon worked with Abram Owen Thomas for his graduate work.  Also in 1930, Laudon married Florence Stanzel on March 21st.

During his studies at Iowa, Laudon travelled all over Iowa to collect fossils.  He was a very good stratigrapher and sorted out many issues with Iowa stratigraphy that were present at the time.  He also came across many good fossil collecting localities.  He was seemingly the first to realize the abundance of fossils at the Gilmore City Formation.  Lowell grew a lot as a geologist and a person at Iowa, and after receiving his PhD, he was offered a job at the University of Tulsa, which he accepted.
Lowell and his wife Florence moved to Tulsa in 1930 where Lowell had received a job at the University.  However, after his first year, the university told Laudon that they could not afford to keep him on.  Laudon did manage to negotiate keeping his job, but at an extreme cut in pay and many more hours of work.  Finances were tough for the Laudon’s at first.  During his tenure at Tulsa, Laudon became the local geology expert.  He gave great talks and would take students on field trips, which is where Laudon loved to be the most.  In the fall of 1941 Lowell went on to teach at the University of Kansas .

Lowell and his family moved to Kansas in 1941 where he took on a new teaching position in the geology department at the University of Kansas .  Soon after his arrival, the department chair left and named Laudon acting department chair.  By the end of the school year the department chair had not returned, so the administration named Laudon the official department chair.  Laudon stayed at Kansas for 7 years.  During this time he continued to be a favorite lecturer among students, and continued taking students on fun-filled field trips.  During the war years, Laudon led a field party doing reconnaissance geology for the Imperial Oil Company of Canada. 

In 1948, Laudon and his family once again moved, this time to Wisconsin where Laudon would spend the rest of his career teaching at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  When Laudon moved to Wisconsin he signed a clause in his contract so that he would not have to be department chair.  Apparently the duties of department chair did not agree with Laudon, even though he had performed the duties well at Kansas.  At Wisconsin, Laudon continued his studies of Mississippian stratigraphy, which had been his interest throughout his life.  Lowell retired in 1975 at the age of 70.

After retirement, Lowell largely separated himself from acadamia.  In the early 1980’s he discovered that he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.  For many years Lowell’s wife Florence tried to find help for him, but eventually the disease progressed too far and he had to move into a nursing home.  Lowell Robert Laudon died on March 13, 1993. 

Lowell Laudon lived a rich life.  He was one of the most influential paleontologists of his time.  He mentored many students and when he would move schools, often so would his students.  Laudon was an accomplished paleontologist, but he also was something of a family man.  He was close with his dad, Alfred, and younger sister, Freda.  However he was especially close with his mother, Florence.  When he got older, Laudon had a family of his own as well, he and his wife had four sons, all who became geologists.