Individual Details
Francis Raymond Fosberg
(20 May 1908 - 25 Sep 1993)
Events
Families
Spouse | Violet Mildred Oliveira (1911 - 1975) |
Child | Helen Charlotte "Charlen" Fosberg (1941 - 2017) |
Child | Ilima Jane Fosberg (1946 - 2016) |
Child | Living |
Child | Living |
Spouse | Suzanne Ripley (1936 - 2008) |
Father | Axel Peter Fosberg (1879 - 1966) |
Mother | Helena Rosa Wirtner (1880 - 1955) |
Sibling | Marion Lawrence Fosberg (1910 - 1998) |
Sibling | Harold Albert Fosberg (1912 - 1976) |
Sibling | Kenneth Phillip Fosberg (1914 - 1993) |
Sibling | Eva Ruth Fosberg (1919 - 1974) |
Sibling | Maynard Axel Fosberg (1919 - 2020) |
Notes
Death
Dr. F. Raymond Fosberg, 85, Botanist Emeritus at the Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, a world-renowned authority on plant and ecosystem conservation and on vegetation and floristics of the Pacific basin, died Saturday, September 25, 1993 at his home in Falls Church, Va. after a long bout with cancer. Dr. Fosberg published his first scientific paper in 1929 while still a student at Pomona College in California. During a career that spanned the next 63 years, he published more than 600 papers on plant taxonomy, plant distribution, ecology, and conservation. He contributed to a number of scientific books. He founded and edited the Atoll Research Bulletin, a forum for all aspects of island biology, which has now run to 389 issues . He was also co-editor of The Flora of Ceylon, of which eight volumes have been published to date. Dr. Fosberg was born in Spokane, Washington, in 1908. He graduated from Pomona College in 1930. He earned his Master's degree from the University of Hawaii in 1935, and his PhD in Botany from the University of Pennsylvania in 1939. As a member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he spent World War II in South America searching for wild stands of the Cinchona tree, the only source of quinine at that time. From 1950 to 1965, as a botanist at the U.S. Geological Survey, he contributed to many vegetation studies, particularly in the Pacific. In 1966, he joined the Smithsonian Institution as a special advisor on tropical botany. He continued to work at the Smithsonian Institution even after his "retirement" in 1978, until shortly before his death. During his career, Dr. Fosberg received numerous honors for his work in encouraging and publicizing the need for conservation, and for scientific contributions to world-wide ecosystem preservation. His advice was sought by hundreds of groups and individuals with ecological interests, such as Rachel Carson, James Michener, and Marlon Brando. He received four honorary degrees, from Pomona College and from Universities in Guam, Sri Lanka, and Fiji. He received a number of awards from various scientific organizations including The American Geographical Society and the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii. He helped organize and participated in many international scientific meetings; notable among these were eight of the Pacific Science Congresses which are held periodically in a host country on the Pacific rim and which cover all aspects of natural sciences in the Pacific region. He probably visited more Pacific islands, always for detailed study, than any other man in the twentieth century.
Endnotes
1. "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J24J-RJD : 19 May 2014), F Raymond Fosberg, Sep 1993; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing)..
2. "Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV17-QRSM : 20 August 2018), Francis Raymond Fosberg and Suzanne Ripley, 13 Apr 1985; from "Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700-1850," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing Fairfax, , Virginia, United States, certificate 85-014440, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond..
3. "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J24J-RJD : 19 May 2014), F Raymond Fosberg, Sep 1993; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing)..