Biographical Sketches of Deceased North American Mycologists including a few European Mycologists L. R. Hesler January 1975 FORWARD Ron Petersen University of Tennessee May 2020 For the first half of his long career, Lexemual Ray Hesler (1888-1977) was a plant pathologist. His interest in botany was sparked by his mentor at Wabash College (class of 1911), Mason Blanchard Thomas, professor of botany and horticulture. Thomas’ time at Wabash was marked by his uncanny identification of promising young men and encouraging them to continue their studies at leading universities. But that is only one side of the equation. Once a student was discovered, graduate studies required funds to pay for tuition, books, board, and room. Often, a former student, now on the faculty of a more comprehensive university (Yale and Cornell come to mind), made arrangements for an earmarked fellowship. Hesler benefited by such. Herbet Hice Whetzel (Wabash class of 1902, by 1911 head of the Department of Plant Pathology at Cornell University) arranged a fellowship for Hesler assisting apple growers in upstate New York in the summer of Hesler’s graduation from Wabash. In September, Hesler enrolled at Cornell in plant pathology. The next three summers were spent in the orchards. There followed the Cornell Ph. D. in 1914, and retention on the Cornell Plant Pathology Department faculty until his move to Tennessee in 1919. At Tennessee, administrative duties (i.e. Head of the new Department of Botany and later Dean of the College of Liberal Arts until his retirement in 1958) reduced research time, but his plant pathological interests didn’t flag. Then, in December 1934, a disastrous fire destroyed the building in which the life sciences were housed, including botany. All was lost; for Hesler, seven thousand herbarium specimens, a small but costly library, notes and manuscripts. But if the fire was a total loss, it was also a life-changing punctuation as well. Pre-fire, Hesler had begun taking interest in the abundant fleshy fungi of the nearby Appalachian Mountains. Post-fire, he began expressing that interest, collecting, photographing, writing descriptions, preserving fresh material, and reaching out to whomever was the authority on each taxonomic group for help in identification. The distinction between plant pathology and mycology dated a few decades previous. William Ashbrook Kellerman had started The Journal of Mycology with just such separation in his mind. The plant pathologists had their interests and their journals for research publication. His Journal was mycological. Two decades later, Cornell’s Department of Plant Pathology, under Whetzel, had a separate faculty appointment for a mycologist, who, far-outnumbered by pathologists, was not expected to do pathological research. In short, mycology represented taxonomy; plant pathology was the application of “basic research” to growth, well-being, and marketing of cultivated products. The present volume presents the second half of Hesler’s career. His concern was that the names of mycologists (almost no plant pathologists) he came to know in the research community, often personally, would not easily be connected by upcoming generations of students to a persona, a life and a career. A concerted effort to amass such a collection of “thumb-nail biographies” was started about 1970 and was loose-leaf bound in 1975. Hesler opined that the volume of 124 brief biographies ranging from a half-page to five pages, was not ready for publication because he had not exhausted available background material. To do so would have required many typed letters to government and university archivists and distant colleagues, days or weeks for replies and collation into the growing volume. It is salutary to remember that computers and their instant correcting ability in manuscripts, file-saving, and resurrection, much less “e-mail,” were still 20 to 30 years ahead. Today, one can find more material on almost any name on-line in a couple hours than Hesler could in days or weeks. Using this thread as an excuse, each of Hesler’s biographies is an invitation to further explore the person featured. For those with a historical bent, each of the people featured lived a life span in locations, at schools, on faculties, each of which is worthy of investigation. Search engines, charged with a full name, date of birth and some modifier, usually “botanist” or “mycologist,” can furnish embellishments. Soon, some relationships emerge (i.e. the Morrill Act, creating Land-Grant Colleges, occurred shortly before the lives of many of the featured mycologists and in many cases provided their first—or second or third—job. The Second Morrill Act created agricultural experiment stations). If this invitation to further “peel the onion” were accepted, Hesler would smile. Published May 2020 by MykoWeb (www.mykoweb.com) from the original Hesler manuscript located in the University of Tennessee Library archives: https://digital.lib.utk.edu/collections/islandora/object/hesler%3A24792/datastream/OBJ/download/Bio graphical_sketches_of_deceased_North_American_mycologists_including_a_few_European_mycologist s__A-K_.pdf and https://digital.lib.utk.edu/collections/islandora/object/hesler%3A24792/datastream/OBJ/download/Bio graphical_sketches_of_deceased_North_American_mycologists_including_a_few_European_mycologist s__A-K_.pdf OCR and formatting of original document by Michael Wood. Final proof reading by Jane Wardzinska. Version 1.01 Who is Included? This is a series of biographical sketches of some deceased North American mycologists. A few Europeans whose biographies were readily available to me are also included. It is a compilation and is not a history. To compensate for brevity, I have included references to my sources, and have indicated whether or not a photograph and a list of publications accompany the biographical account. Some Helpful Sources Besides scientific journals, several book-size publications have been most helpful. The more important sources include: • Stevenson, John A. An Account of Fungus Exsiccati Containing Material from the Americas. Beihefte zur Nova Hedwigia, Heft 36. 1971. • Stafleu, Frans A. Taxonomic Literature. 1967. • Lindau, G. et P. Sydow. Thesaurus. (Gives extensive lists of publications by author) • Catalog of the National Agricultural Library. (Lists of publications by author) • Dictionary of Scientific Biography. • Who's Who in America. • Who Was Who in America. • Harshberger, John W. The Botanists of Philadelphia and Their Work. 1899. • Journals: Journal of Mycology, Mycologia, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Persoonia, Farlowia, Phytopathology, Botanical Gazette, Transactions of the British Mycological Society, Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society Journal, Lloyd's Mycological Notes and Letters (Cincinnati). ~ 1 ~ Foreign Mycologists Brazil: Batista Canada: Buller; Dearness; Groves; Jackson, H. S. Czechoslovakia: Kavina; Velenovský Denmark: Lange, J.; Rostrup England: Berkeley; Broome; Cooke, M. C. Cotton; Crossland; Massee; Rea; Smith, Geo.; Smith, W. G.; Wakefield Finland: Karsten France: Boudier; Patouillard Germany: deBary Italy: Bresadola; Ciferri; Saccardo; Vittadini Japan: Miyabe Netherlands: Donk; Persoon Norway: Jørstad Puerto Rico: Chardon Russia: Bucholtz; Jaczewski Sweden: Fries; Romell Switzerland: Gaumann ~ 2 ~ Lawrence Marion Ames 1900 – 1966 Among Ames' several interests in mycology, his work on hermaphroditism in the ascomycete, Pleurage anserina, and a monograph of the Chaetomiaceae (1961) both stand out as superior researches. Although born in the State of Washington, at Waverly, in 1900, the family later moved to Michigan and then to Indiana, where his father was a farmer. He earned the B. S. degree at Michigan State College (now University) in 1927, and the M. S., also at Michigan State, in 1929. There, under E. A. Bessey (son of C. E. Bessey, Nebraska), he developed a life-time interest in the fungi. After one year at The Ohio Agriculture Experiment Station, Wooster, he married Willa Love Galyon, a Knoxvillian and a graduate of University of Tennessee, and whom Ames met while both were graduate students with Bessey. That same year (1930), he became Austin Teaching Fellow in Botany at Harvard, where he was awarded the Ph.D. in 1933. After some years with the U. S. Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, he was appointed in 1944 as Research Mycologist to the Army, at Fort Belvoir, to study causes and control of fabric disintegration; and finally, he became Dean of Graduate Studies there under the auspices of The Catholic University, Washington, D.C. On retirement in 1961, he re-activated an old interest which he had in fungus diseases in man, and for a time he was adviser to Children's Hospital, District of Columbia, and later was Research Professor at American University stationed at Sibley Hospital there. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1966. Reference • Diehl, Wm. W. Lawrence Marion Ames. Mycologia 59: 189-191. 1967. With photograph and publications list. Joseph Charles Arthur 1850 – 1942 Born in Lowville, New York, on January 11, 1850, Arthur's family moved first to Illinois, then in about 1856 to a farm near Charles City, Iowa. He was one of the first students to enroll at the newly opened Iowa State College (now University) at Ames, in 1869. Arthur had been interested in plants and hoped to study them at Iowa. But when he entered Iowa, he found that no course in botany was being taught. One of the professors procured for him a book, “Eton's Manual”, which Arthur read. Real help came the next year when Charles E. Bessey (later at Nebraska) came to Iowa as an Instructor in Botany. During his remaining days at Iowa he took courses with Bessey. Arthur graduated with the B. S. degree from Iowa State in 1872. At that time, however, there were no openings in botany in American colleges. During the next few years, he marked time until 1876 when he accepted an Instructorship at Iowa State which position he held for two years (1876-1878). During this time, he met Holway, Uredinologist, and their association continued until Holway's death in 1923. In 1877, Arthur took the M. S. at Iowa State.