Herbert Hice Whetzel

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Herbert Hice Whetzel
Whetzel in 1937
Born(1877-09-05)September 5, 1877
Avilla, Indiana, United States
DiedNovember 30, 1944(1944-11-30) (aged 67)
Occupation(s)Professor, phytopathologist, mycologist
Spouse(s)Lucy E. Baker (d.1912), Bertha A. Baker (d.1939)
ChildrenGertrude O. Grover, Joseph C. Whetzel
Parent(s)Joseph Conrad Whetzel, Gertrude (Eckles) Whetzel

Herbert Hice Whetzel (September 5, 1877 – November 30, 1944) was an American

mycologist
. As a professor of plant pathology, he led the first department of plant pathology at an American university and founded the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium (CUP).

Background and education

H. H. Whetzel was born near

George F. Atkinson. In 1904 he married Lucy E. Baker. They had two children, Joseph and Gertrude; Lucy died in 1912. In 1914 he married Lucy's sister Bertha A. Baker, and they raised the children together in Ithaca, New York.[1]

Career

While still working on his doctoral research, Whetzel was hired by

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.[2] In 1906, Whetzel was appointed assistant professor of botany, and in 1907, he became the head professor of the newly created Department of Plant Pathology.[2] A quirk of Cornell's rules prevented him from officially receiving his PhD, but he was later awarded honorary D.Sc. degrees from Wabash College and the University of Puerto Rico.[3] His students included M. F. Barrus and Charles Chupp, who both went on to teach at Cornell and who shared Whetzel's conviction of the importance of extension work[2] as well as Carlos E. Chardón
, who became a government minister and Chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico.

Whetzel studied sclerotium-producing cup fungi, and published a monograph of genera in the family Sclerotiniaceae. He was a charter member of the American Phytopathological Society, authored more than 300 publications, and was instrumental in founding and developing the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium (CUP),[4] where his fungus collections are stored. He was a pioneer in documenting the fungi of Puerto Rico (1916) and Bermuda (1920–1921).

Whetzel died in Ithaca, New York, at the age of 67.[1] He had resided in the Forest Home area of Ithaca for over 30 years.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 3754627
    .
  2. ^ .
  3. ^ "New York Times". Herbert H. Whetzel, a Plant Pathologist (Obituary). p24. Dec 1, 1944.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  4. ^ "Herbert Hice Whetzel". APSnet.org. Archived from the original on 20 May 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  5. ^ "Ithaca Directories (1864-1986) - TCPL - Tompkins County Public Library". tcpl.org. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  6. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Whetzel.