{"id":2499,"date":"2014-10-30T12:10:15","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T16:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/?p=2499"},"modified":"2014-10-30T12:12:27","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T16:12:27","slug":"elsie-was-more-than-a-biology-professor-and-ecologist-jonathan-ertelt-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/elsie-was-more-than-a-biology-professor-and-ecologist-jonathan-ertelt-community.html","title":{"rendered":"Elsie was more than a biology professor and ecologist –Jonathan Ertelt, Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nSaying what many students think: “Students of all ages are thankful\r\nthat her appreciation of the plant kingdom and the world around her\r\ntouched them and made their lives.”\r\n

\r\nJonathan Ertelt, Vanderbilt Magazine, Summer 2014 issue<\/a>,\r\n\r\nQuarterman Was More Than a Biology Professor and Ecologist<\/a>,\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

In every piece written about Elsie Quarterman following her death at\r\nage 103 in early June,\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n major space was devoted to the Middle\r\nTennessee cedar glade ecosystem where much of her work was focused.\r\nThe contributions of Quarterman and her graduate students to our\r\nunderstanding of this ecosystem, its ongoing presence, and the\r\ncomeback of the critically endangered Tennessee coneflower are all\r\npart of her well-deserved legacy.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nBut Quarterman, Vanderbilt professor of biology, emerita, one of the\r\ncountry’s first prominent female ecologists, was not only out on the\r\ncedar glades. I remember her from my nine years at Cheekwood\r\nBotanical Garden in Nashville beginning in the late 1970s. By then\r\nshe was no longer acting director, but she was still there a lot.\r\nShe helped with tours to the cedar glades, but also was present any\r\ntime the Herb Society had functions there and was active in the\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nTennessee Gesneriad Society<\/a>, a group focused on the largely tropical\r\nfamily best known for African violets.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nI served with Elsie on the board of the\r\nTennessee Environmental Council<\/a>\r\nfor several years. I remember traveling across the state\r\nwith her, talking about the “DYCs” (damned yellow\r\ncomposites) among other roadside flora as we drove along, an\r\nactivity I now share with my family when we drive.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nElsie Quarterman was more than a biology professor and the ecologist\r\nwho heralded the cedar glades and the rediscovery of\r\nEchinacea tennessensis.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nShe enabled many students and others through the many\r\ncommunities in which she participated to view the world\r\ndifferently—to see the plants and plant communities and to\r\nrecognize the specialness of these plants and their habitats, their\r\necosystems.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nHer legacy includes the coneflower and the cedar glades of Middle\r\nTennessee, without a doubt. But her real legacy is much larger.\r\nStudents of all ages are thankful that her appreciation of the plant\r\nkingdom and the world around her touched them and made their lives\r\nricher.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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