{"id":2380,"date":"2014-08-25T20:06:43","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T00:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/?p=2380"},"modified":"2014-08-25T20:21:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T00:21:26","slug":"seb-professor-elsie-quarterman-in-memorium-1910-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/seb-professor-elsie-quarterman-in-memorium-1910-2014.html","title":{"rendered":"SEB: Professor Elsie Quarterman: In Memorium, 1910-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nHer students Carol and Jerry Baskin wrote for the\r\n\r\nJuly 2014 Southeastern Biology<\/a> newsletter of\r\n\r\nThe Association of Southeastern Biologists<\/a>,\r\nOBITUARY: Professor Elsie Quarterman: In Memorium, 1910-2014\r\n

\r\n

\r\nDr. Elsie Quarterman known fondly to her students as EQ passed away\r\non 9 June 2014 at her home in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of\r\n103 years. She was born on 28 November 1910 in Valdosta, Georgia.\r\nDr. Quarterman obtained her B. A. degree from Georgia State Women’s\r\nCollege (now Valdosta State University) in 1932,\r\n\r\n after which she\r\ntaught English in the Georgia public schools for 11 years. She\r\nobtained her M.A. degree in botany from Duke University in 1941 and\r\nher Ph.D. from the same institution in 1949. Her Ph.D. advisor was\r\nthe renowned plant ecologist Professor Henry J. Oosting.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n EQ’s M.A.\r\ndegree was on the distribution of Compositae in Lowndes County,\r\nGeorgia, and her Ph.D. degree on the plant communities of the cedar\r\nglades of middle Tennessee. She published papers from her\r\ndissertation in The Bryologist (1949), Bulletin of the Torrey\r\nBotanical Club (1950) and Ecology (1950).\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nDr. Quarterman joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University as an\r\ninstructor of biology in 1943 and was promoted through the academic\r\nranks to professor in 1966; she served as Chair of the Department of\r\nGeneral Biology from 1961 to 1963.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n EQ retired from Vanderbilt in\r\n1976 and became Professor Emerita. In the academic world, Dr.\r\nQuarterman is best known for her work on the plant communities of\r\nthe middle Tennessee cedar glades. She also is well known for the\r\npublication entitled\r\n\r\n\r\n“Southern mixed hardwood forest: climax\r\nin the southeastern Coastal Plain: U.S.A.”<\/a> coauthored with her\r\nlong-time friend the late\r\n\r\n\r\nDr. Catherine Keever<\/a> and published in\r\nEcological Monographs in 1962. Her first journal paper, entitled\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n“A preliminary survey of the bryophytes of two cedar\r\nglades,”<\/a> was published in The Bryologist in 1947. Her last\r\npaper, which she coauthored with her former Ph.D. students Carol and\r\nJerry Baskin, entitled\r\n\r\n\r\n“Flow diagrams for plant succession in\r\nthe middle Tennessee cedar glades,”<\/a> was published in the\r\nJournal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas in 2007.\r\nAltogether, Professor Quarterman authored or coauthored about 25\r\npapers in referred journals. Another of her important scientific\r\ncontributions was a chapter entitled\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n“Rock outcrop\r\ncommunities: limestone, sandstone and granite” coauthored with\r\nM. P. Burbank and D. J. Shure and published in the\r\n\r\n“Upland Terrestrial Communities”<\/a>\r\nvolume of “Biodiversity of the\r\nSoutheastern United States” edited by W. H. Martin and others\r\nand published by John Wiley & Sons in 1993. Additionally, after\r\nretirement EQ and Dr. Richard Powell, a geologist from Indiana,\r\nworked on a 5-year contract with the National Park Service to survey\r\n\r\n“Potential ecological\/geological natural landmarks on the\r\nInterior Low Plateaus,”<\/a> a physiographic province that extends\r\nfrom southern Indiana, extreme southern Ohio and southern Illinois\r\nthrough central\/west-central Kentucky and central Tennessee to\r\nnorthern Alabama. The 738-page document resulting from this work is\r\na valuable contribution to our knowledge of the plant ecology,\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\ngeology and physiography of the Interior Low Plateaus.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nProfessor Quarterman taught a wide array of courses in plant biology\r\nat Vanderbilt, including general botany, plant ecology, plant\r\nautecology, plant geography, systematic botany and plant anatomy. We\r\ntook graduate courses in plant ecology, plant autecology and plant\r\ngeography with her and today judge that her teaching was\r\n“ahead of its time.” That is, EQ insisted that students\r\nengage in active learning via reading the literature rather than\r\nthem listening to long detailed lectures and subsequently memorizing\r\nthe notes for the exam — then quickly forgetting everything.\r\nHer method of teaching\/training has served us well in research and\r\nin interpreting the scientific literature. Dr. Quarterman served as\r\nmajor professor for seven students who obtained a Ph.D. degree and\r\nfor six who obtained the Master’s degree. EQ was highly regarded as\r\na teacher and in 1988 received the Association of Southeastern\r\nBiologists\r\n\r\nMeritorious Teaching Award<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nDr. Quarterman was a very gracious person and concerned about her\r\ngraduate students. For example, she loaned us her personal car (with\r\ngas in the tank) on a number of occasions to visit cedar glades in\r\nmiddle Tennessee, northwestern Georgia and northern Alabama, in\r\nconnection with our Ph.D. research in the mid-1960s. Also, Dr.\r\nQuarterman gave us money for gasoline to go on a field trip escorted\r\nby Dr. Delzie Demaree to Illinois in search of Astragalus\r\ntennesseensis (Carol’s study species), after Jerry purchased a 1957\r\nFord. There were many field trips to the cedar glades, about which\r\nDr. Quarterman had considerable expertise; she was always eager to\r\nshare her knowledge on their unique flora and plant communities. We,\r\nalong with several other graduate students, enjoyed several trips\r\nwith EQ to various universities in the southeastern USA to attend\r\nthe annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists.\r\nAll these acts of kindness are remembered by us and other students,\r\nwith much gratitude.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nDr. Quarterman served the scientific community in many ways,\r\nincluding Vice President of the American Bryological Society,\r\nPresident of the Association of Southeastern Biologists, Chair of\r\nthe southeastern section of the Botanical Society of America and\r\nmember of the Editorial Board of Ecology and of the Plant Science\r\nBulletin. EQ was a member of the Executive Committee of the\r\nTennessee Academy of Science, editor of the Journal of the Tennessee\r\nAcademy of Science, and served on the Board of the Highlands (NC)\r\nBiological Foundation (Station). Professor Quarterman was a Fellow\r\nof the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the\r\nTennessee Academy of Science, and of the Association of Southeastern\r\nBiologists.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nIn addition to her university and society duties, Dr. Quarterman was\r\nvery much engaged in conservation efforts, especially in Tennessee.\r\nShe was a founder and active member of the Tennessee Protection\r\nPlanning Committee (an inter-agency forum to coordinate efforts to\r\npreserve ecologically important areas in the state), a very active\r\nboard member of the Tennessee Nature Conservancy for many years and\r\nserved on the Tennessee Environmental Council. Dr. Quarterman played\r\nan important role in the preservation of a remnant virgin forest in\r\nSavage Gulf on the west-facing escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau\r\nin Grundy County, Tennessee, and inspired the preservation of Taylor\r\nHollow on the Highland Rim in Tennessee. She was involved with the\r\nTennessee Botanical Gardens at Cheekwood (in Nashville) for many\r\nyears and served as Acting Director (1967-68). She was a member of\r\nFriends of Warner Park, Friends of Radnor Lake, a strong supporter\r\nof the Middle Tennessee State University Center for Cedar Glade\r\nStudies and worked with the U.S. Corp of Engineers to identify and\r\npreserve some of the cedar glade communities on Percy Priest\r\nReservoir Lands.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n For her conservation efforts, she received the\r\nOak Leaf Award from\r\n\r\nThe Nature Conservancy<\/a>, the\r\n\r\nGeorge B. Fell Lifetime Achievement Award<\/a>\r\nfrom the Natural Areas Association and the\r\n\r\n\r\nSol Feinstone Environmental Award<\/a> from the State University of New York\r\nCollege of Environmental Science and Forestry.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nDr. Quarterman will be remembered as a fine southern lady who loved\r\nher family and students, studied cedar glades, had a deep\r\nappreciation of the value of natural ecosystems and worked\r\ntirelessly for the preservation of natural plant communities.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n In her\r\nhonor, a 185-acre cedar glade in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers\r\nPercy Priest Reservoir and Wildlife Management Area near La Vergne,\r\nTennessee, has been named the\r\n\r\n\r\n“The Elsie Quarterman Cedar Glade,”<\/a>\r\nand the annual wildflower weekend at Cedars of Lebanon\r\nState Park in Tennessee has been renamed\r\n\r\n\r\n“The Elsie Quarterman Wildflower Weekend.”<\/a>\r\nAlso, the\r\n\r\n\r\nElsie Quarterman-Catherine Keever Award<\/a>\r\nis given by the Southeastern Chapter of the Ecological\r\nSociety of America\r\n\r\nfor the best student poster<\/a> at the annual meeting\r\nof the\r\nAssociation of Southeastern Biologists.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe thing that many people will remember about Dr. Quarterman is\r\nthat she and one of her students, the late Dr. Barbara Turner,\r\ndiscovered a population of the Tennessee coneflower (Echinacea\r\ntennesseensis) in a middle Tennessee cedar glade in 1969; the\r\nspecies was thought to be extinct, thus accounting for the great\r\nexcitement upon its rediscovery. One of Dr. Quarterman’s Ph.D.\r\nstudents, Dr. Thomas Hemmerly, studied the ecology of this\r\nconeflower for his dissertation research. Dr. Quarterman worked hard\r\nto help educate the public about the significance of this federally\r\nendangered cedar glade endemic and served on committees to plan for\r\nits protection and recovery; the species was delisted in 2011. Now,\r\nmany people in Tennessee can recognize the Tennessee Cone Flower and\r\nhave come to appreciate it — a fine and fitting tribute to the\r\nlady who loved the “flower gardens” of the cedar glades\r\nand spent many years educating people about the wonders of plants\r\nand of the necessity of preserving their habitats.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nCarol C. Baskin\r\n
\r\nDepartment of Biology\r\n
\r\nDepartment of Plant and Soil Sciences\r\n
\r\nUniversity of Kentucky, Lexington, KY\r\n

\r\nJerry M. Baskin (retired)\r\n
\r\nDepartment of Biology\r\n
\r\nUniversity of Kentucky, Lexington, KY\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"600x883<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThanks to Prof. Richard Carter of VSU for the pointer.\r\n-jsq\r\n

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