In Memoriam:
Ernst Cleveland Abbe, 1905-2000
Professor Abbe, Professor Emeritus of Botany at the University of Minnesota, died March 15, 2000. He was born August 21, 1905 in Washington, D.C. and earned his B.S. (1928) and Master's (1930) degrees from Cornell University, the latter under the tutelage of A.J. Eames. In the same year he married Lucy Elizabeth Boothroyd. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University in 1934, under the mentorship of R.H. Wetmore. After a National Research Council Fellowship with Sinnott at Columbia, he moved to a faculty position at the University of Minnesota where he was a member of the Botany Department until he retired in 1974. Twice during his tenure, 1944-47 and 1962-67, he served as Department Chairman. During his tenure at the University, he made a lasting impact on science teaching, scientific research and administration in the state. He was active in the Minnesota Chapter of Sigma Xi, serving as president in 1947-48, and encouraged his students to become active members. In 1982 he received the Chapter's "Distinguished Service Award." He was instrumental in revitalizing the Minnesota Academy of Science, in which he served as vice-president (1951-52) and president (1952-53). The Abbe laboratory was always well represented at Academy meetings; all of his students, from Bernie Phinney and Otto Stein in the 1940's through Martin Goffinet and Marsh Sundberg in the 1970's "cut their professional teeth" at the Minnesota Academy of Science.
Abbe's early research was on inflorescence and floral anatomy of the Betulaceae. Through the 1940's and 50's he turned his attention to the maize plant and more than 25 papers and articles on maize morphogenesis flowed from the laboratory. Many of these were investigations of the role of various mutants in altering developmental patterns. Later he returned to comparative studies of amentiferous taxa, particularly the Myricaceae. His last major publication was "Flowers and inflorescences of the `Amentiferae'" Botanical Review 40(2):159-261, 1974. During his career he was the recipient of a number of awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship at Harvard University (1941-42) and a Fullbright Professorship at the University of Singapore (1961-62). He participated in the Grenfell-Forbes Northern Labradore Expedition, 1931; the University of Minnesota Expedition to Hudson Bay, 1939; an expedition to Mt. Kinabalu on Borneo, 1962; and expeditions to Malaysia in 1959-60 and 1964. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
Following retirement he remained active in research and mentoring and
could be found
daily in the now Plant Biology Department into the early 1990's. Dr.
Abbe contributed his extensive preserved plant collections to the University
of Minnesota Herbarium and was instrumental in expanding it into an important
regional and international collection within the Department.
Dr. Abbe is survived by a sister, Elfriede Abbe of Manchester Center,
VT; two sons, Robert C. Abbe of Newton, MA and David C. Abbe of San Diego,
CA; six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Memorial gifts whould
be made to the Ernst C. and Lucy B. Abbe Scholarship, College of Biological
Sciences, at the University of Minnesota.
-Marsh Sundberg, Emporia State University
Tharl Richard Fisher. 1921 - 2000.
T. Richard Fisher, age 78, plant taxonomist specializing in Heliopsis, Siliphium and other related genera of the Compositae, died from a heart attach 11 February 2000, in Queenstown, New Zealand. He was on a three-week vacation trip with his wife, Charlotte, and 36 other mostly senior citizens as a group touring New Zealand and Australia. Dick Fisher was a vibrant, energetic, and friendly individual who loved plants. He imparted that genuine enthusiasm to his general botany and horticulture classroom students, a large number of whom decided to pursue a major in botany or horticulture, and who then continued with related life careers. Some of them became professional botanists teaching at the college or university level.
Born 23 December, 1921, in Brownstown, Illinois, Fisher graduated from nearby Vandalia High School in Vandalia. While serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he was stationed on the Philippine Islands. Concentrating his studies in botany, zoology, and physical education, Fisher received a B.E. at Eastern Illinois State (now University) Teachers College (1947), taught high school biology and physical education in Stockton, Illinois (1947-1950), and earned the Ph.D. in botany at Indiana University (1954). His dissertation was on the systematics of the genus Heliopsis (Compositae) completed under the guidance of Charles B. Heiser, Jr. and published in the Ohio Journal of Science (57:171-191). Fisher held teaching and research professorships at Appalachian State Teachers College (now University) in Boone, North Carolina (1954-1956), The Ohio State University (1965-1968), and Bowling Green State University, Ohio (1968-1988).
Dick Fisher was hired as an instructor in botany at The Ohio State University to develop an active graduate-level program in plant systematics, designing new courses to teach and receiving federal grants to support research. During the twelve years at OSU, he advanced to full professor in eight years. Eight M.S. and eight Ph.D. degrees were earned by 13 students under his advisorship, and in 1965 he made possible the hiring of Ronald L. Stuckey, an additional faculty member, into the program. He designed a course in field botany that he taught for twelve summers from 1957 to 1975 at the University's F.T. Stone Laboratory, Put-in-Bay. As a past member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, he served as the Society's local host when the organization held its annual meeting with the American Institute of Biological Sciences at The Ohio State University (1968).
Fisher was selected in 1968 as chairperson to develop the graduate program in the Department of Biology at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio. Among his many accomplishments was the preparation of the documentation resulting in accreditation to the University to grant the Ph.D. degree in the Biological Sciences. Following resignation of the chairperson position in 1974, he continued as a faculty member designing and teaching courses in horticulture until retirement in 1983, when he was named Professor Emeritus of Biology. He continued teaching part-time there until 1988.
While at Bowling Green, Fisher served as an advisor and member of the Board of Trustees of the non-profit Schedel Foundation, which now maintains a 17-acre public Arboretum and Garden, about 22 miles northeast of Bowling Green at Elmore, Ohio. In 1989, Fisher was named the Arboretum's first executive director, serving until 1998. During that time he vastly improved the facility, making it a garden show place that attracted large numbers of visitors and organizations from throughout northwestern Ohio and elsewhere.
An avid gardener, Dick had his own garden and greenhouse in Bowling Green, where for twenty years he persistently worked toward developing a special chrysanthemum that would bloom earlier and thought a "full season." Fisher wrote two books: A laboratory manual, Introduction to Horticulture, T.I.S., Bloomington, IN (1978, Rev. 1979), and the Vascular Flora of Ohio: Asteraceae (Compositae), a project of the Ohio Academy of Science, published by The Ohio State University Press (1988). In 1997, he was a recipient of the Herbert Osborn Award in recognition of his contribution to the knowledge of the vascular flora of Ohio, presented by the Ohio Biological Survey.
T. Richard Fisher is survived by his wife,
Charlotte Mary (Greene) Fisher of 56 years, two sons, Michael and Jonathan,
two daughters, Ann (Fisher) Otley and Mary (Fisher) Kirk, and eight grandchildren.
Since 1957, the family has maintained a summer home at Lake Erie on South
Bass Island at Put-in-Bay, and since about the mid-1980s, they have lived
in a winter home in North Fort Myers, Florida. Memorials may be made to
the T. Richard Fisher Scholarship Fund at BGSU, the Schedel Arboretum and
Gardens, or the Lake Erie Island Historical Society. A memorial service
was held at the Schedel Arboretum in Elmore, 21 May, 2000.
-Ronald L. Stuckey, The Ohio State University
