B. D. Parfitt
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Name
Bruce D. Parfitt
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Dates
1952 - 2009
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Specialities
Spermatophytes
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Roles
Author, Collector, Determiner
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Movement Details
United States of America
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Notes
Author Notes: MO
Collector Notes: SW. United States & N. Mexico: ASU
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From Flora of North America Newsletter 23(2): 22-23. 2009.:
Bruce Parfitt
1952–2009
Botanist, biologist, birder Bruce Dale Parfitt of
Johnson, Vermont, died
at Vermont Respite House in
Williston, September 3,
2009. He was 56. Bruce was
born November 7, 1952 in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the son
of Dale and Joan (née Barth)
Parfitt. From age four during
family vacations, he fished,
hunted, and camped in
Oconto County in the land
of the jack pines and sweet
ferns “up north.” He graduated from Oshkosh High School in 1970, and earned a
extensive correspondence with colleagues around the
world; even in his final year he was regularly working in
his office on the 4th floor of Coker Hall. He also was an
Adjunct Research Scientist at the Hunt Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University since 1981, continuing his
interests in botanical history, especially in the travels of
Edward Palmer and the Sessé & Mociño expedition.
Rogers was active in various botanical societies. He
was a council member (1950–58) and president (1956)
of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. He served
the International Association for Plant Taxonomy as
vice-president (1969–72) and president (1972–75), as
well as serving many years on nomenclature committees
and as a member of the editorial committee for the
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (1964–75).
The Festschrift that IAPT published in 1979 in honor of
his retirement includes a detailed biographical “appreciation” of Rog (Taxon 28: 1–3).
Rog received numerous honors for his outstanding
scholarly contributions; a complete list is available at the
University of North Carolina Herbarium website (www.
herbarium.unc.edu/Collectors/McVaugh.htm). Several
do warrant mention here. Rog was the first recipient of
three prestigious awards: the Asa Gray Award (American
Society of Plant Taxonomists 1984), the Luz María
Villarreal de Puga Medal (University of Guadalajara
1993), and the Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in
Tropical Botany (Smithsonian Institution 2001). He was
one of eight botanists honored at the International
Botanical Congress in 1999 with the Millenium Medal
from the International Association for Plant Taxonomy.
Not surprisingly with a career like that discussed
Bachelor of Science degree from the University of
Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1977. He earned his masters and
doctoral degrees from Arizona State University in 1980
and 1991, where he was also herbarium curator and
teaching associate. For both degrees, he worked closely
with Professor Donald Pinkava, who was instrumental
in encouraging Bruce’s interest in cacti.
At the University of Michigan-Flint he was a valued
faculty member for 14 years, chair of the biology department from 2004–2007, and director of the university’s
herbarium, whose collection grew in size and value under
his care. He kept high standards, edited papers relentlessly, challenged assumptions, but lavished his time
toward students’ success in the classroom, in the lab, in
the field, and in their personal lives. As a result, many Flora of North America Newsletter 23(2), July – December 2009
23
became first-generation graduates who found confidence
and success in biology-related careers or entered
Master’s and Ph.D. programs at top universities.
Prior to joining the faculty of UM-Flint, he was a
research botanist for the Desert Botanical Garden in
Phoenix, and a scientific editor of “Flora of North
America” headquartered at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
He was a significant contributor to the Ranunculaceae,
Volume 3, 1997, and the Cactaceae in Volume 4, 2003.
He also prepared Opuntia for the Jepson Manual, 1993.
He authored some 40 papers in the literature, beginning
with a paper on Allenrolfea (Chenopodiaceae) in Rhodora,
1977, while he was an undergraduate at UW-Oshkosh.
Among his friends, he was an avid birder, moose
watcher, canoeist, Mr. Fix-it, and hunter and planter of
trees. He was as tenacious in his friendships as in his opinions. He seemed to apply a scientific approach whether
decorating Christmas cookies or designing birdhouses.
And since 1997, he came to love Vermont, first visiting, then buying a place and staying as often as he could
at his “Mooseberry Camp” on the Lamoille River in
Johnson.
It was while working as a field biologist in 1979 for
the U.S. Bureau of Land Management—helicoptered in
to hike the remote Hualapai Mountains and to collect,
identify, and preserve rare species—that he discovered a
new species, named by Barbara Ertter in 2009 as
Potentilla demotica. It was also in the Hualapai that
Bruce developed a blood vessel malformation that was
impinging on his spinal column. An unfortunate reaction
to diagnostic tests cost him the use of his legs. Undaunted,
in 1980, he learned to walk with canes. Similarly,
throughout his life he often took on projects of considerable magnitude—building a house, planting trees, restoring riverbanks, and the like.
In late July, 2009, Bruce and his mother invited my
wife and me to lunch at an Oshkosh restaurant. During
lunch, he told us that he had come to say good-bye. The
doctors had exhausted their armamentarium of chemotherapies, and surgery would only delay the inevitable end.
Bruce and I went that afternoon to watch the American
White Pelicans at a tiny lake nearby; the species was not
present in Wisconsin when Bruce was such an avid local
birdwatcher. The pelican in myth and folklore represents
loyalty and self-sacrifice, a most fitting compliment to
Bruce Dale Parfitt.—Neil A. Harriman (University of
Wisconsin-Oshkosh)
where he was d -
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