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- David Baxter Dunn, 1917-1994
Submitted by John R. White, Chapter Representative
Dr. David Baxter Dunn came to Columbia in 1967 where he joined the Botany Department as associate professor in plant taxonomy and Curator of the Herbarium. He became a professor at MU in 1969 and was granted the title of Emeritus Professor of Biology on August 31, 1987.
Dr. Dunn was born Jan. 10, 1917 in Mustang, Oklahoma. He received his bachelor's degree at UCLA in 1940, where he became a teaching assistant, followed by his MA in 1942. UCLA awarded him a doctoral degree in 1948. From 1948-50 he was assistant in charge of botanical research for the UCLA Atomic Energy Project following the United States' detonation of atomic bombs on test sites in New Mexico.
Before joining the MU faculty he taught at the University of California and Occidental College in Los Angeles, New Mexico State College in Las Cruces, plus a lectureship at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Dunn published more than 60 papers in the field of plant taxonomy and plant ecology. He trained 14 PhD and 17 Masters' degree students and, as Curator of the Herbarium, he and his students added more than 137,000 plant specimens to the collection. His expertise in plant identification brought in specimens for determination as well as gifts from all over the world. He was a world authority on the genus Lupinus. Gifts of specimens from Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, and from
herbaria in North America and Europe were received.
Dr. Dunn estimated that during five decades he had taught sixteen different biological science courses. Known to all his students as "Doc", his graduate students were taken on field collecting trips to the west, southwest, and Mexico with him and his wife, Betty. These trips became legendary for the numbers of specimens collected as well as the amount of beverages consumed in the hot, dry deserts.
His work was his hobby. Other than fishing trips to Colorado he spent his time on his work. After his retirement in 1987, at which time Dr. Robin C. Kennedy became the new herbarium curator, a greenhouse was built onto the back of his home. "Doc" continued to enjoy his work and Emeritus status until his death on Jan. 3, 1994; he was 76.
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