BEN
BOTANICAL ELECTRONIC NEWS
ISSN 1188-603X


No. 193 May 18, 1998aceska@victoria.tc.ca Victoria, B.C.
Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2

REED ROLLINS, HARVARD PROFESSOR AND MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY, DIES AT 86

From: "David E. Boufford" (boufford@oeb.harvard.edu)

Reed C. Rollins, the Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany Emeritus and director of the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University from 1948 to 1978, died April 28, 1998. He was 86.

Born in Lyman, Wyoming, he graduated with honors from the University of Wyoming, reached his master's degree from Washington State University and his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1941. A member of the Society of Fellows at Harvard from 1937 to 1940, he joined Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1948.

Before coming to Harvard, Rollins served as associate professor of biology at Stanford University and as a geneticist for the U. S. Department of Agriculture. He worked on the Emergency Guayule Rubber Research Project for the U. S. Department of Agriculture during World War II. His research covered many areas in taxonomy and genetics but the primary focus of his work was on the mustard family, Brassicaceae. He was a member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He leaves his wife Kathryn; a daughter, Linda White of Hingham; a son, Richard of Portland, Ore.; stepdaughters, Sydney Roby of Baltimore and Helen Roby of Toronto, Ontario; a sister, Aileen Carter of Tulsa, OK and a brother, Dr. J. P. Rollins of Phoenix, Arizona.

Contributions may be made to the Reed C. Rollins Fund for Botanical Field Work in care of the Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138.

A memorial service will be held at the Memorial Church on Friday, May 22, at 2 p.m. Contact: Professor Donald H. Pfister, 22 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138 Phone: 617-495-2368

Editorial note:
One of Dr. Rollins' last papers was the description of a new species of Lesquerella from central Washington discovered by Kathryn Beck and Florence Caplow (see BEN # 146):

Rollins, R.C., K.A. Beck & F.E. Caplow. 1996.
An undescribed species of Lesquerella (Cruciferae) from the State of Washington. Rhodora 97 ("1995"): 201-207.

In 1993, Dr. Rollins published a monumental work on Brassicaceae in North America:

Rollins, Reed C. 1993.
The Cruciferae of continental North America: systematics of the mustard family from the Arctic to Panama. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. 976 p.


BOTANY BC - JULY 9 TO 11, 1998 - PEACE RIVER BREAKS, TAYLOR, BC

From: Craig Delong (SDELONG@mfor01.for.gov.bc.ca)