On February 23, 1911, in his 65th year, former director and distinguished professor of the Mining Institute, mining engineer Joseph Ivanovich Laguzen, passed away due to a stroke. He contributed significantly to the paleontology and geology of Russia. In paleontology, his works were diverse, but primarily devoted to the study and description of the fossil faunas of the Jurassic and Cretaceous systems. In 1887, he published well-executed lithographed notes for his course on paleontology, and in 1895-1897 he published "A Short Course in Paleontology.” This was the first paleontology textbook published by a Russian professor. This work, in its significance, extends beyond the limits of a textbook, just as it went beyond the scope of the course taught at the Mining Institute. The article provides a list of I. I. Laguzen's scientific works from 1868 to 1891.

The strong and vivid image of Ivan Petrovich is still fresh in all our minds; it is still difficult to come to terms with the bitterness that this is only an image, that Ivan Petrovich himself is gone. Upon becoming director, Ivan Petrovich did not seek to derive any special benefit from this position for himself; he divided the director’s apartment into two parts and kept the worse one for himself; nor did he, for example, pursue additional appropriations for his assistants. He was a remarkably bright, original and richly gifted personality.