OBITUARIES

Jerry W. McClure

Jerry W. McClure

Long-time ASPB member Jerry W. McClure, professor emeritus of botany at Miami University, died Thursday, April 25, at Fort Hamilton Hospital. He was 72. He joined the Miami faculty in 1964, attaining full professorship in 1973. In 1972, he was the first recipient of the Sigma Xi Outstanding Researcher of the Year award. Throughout his career, he received numerous National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture grants to fund his research. McClure retired in 2001. He received the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior U.S. Scientist Award from the government of West Germany and simultaneously received a Fulbright Foundation Honorary Research Fellowship award. He was a visiting professor at Ruhr-Universitat, Bochum, Germany, and he gave more than 30 invited lectures in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, the USSR, and East Germany. In 1982, he was named distinguished visiting scientist, Texas Tech University; in 1983, he received the Heinrich-Hertz research award in Dusseldorf, West Germany, and the Gordon Research Conferences organizing award. In 1987, he was an invited visiting scholar, University of Nairobi, Kenya, and at the same time worked with the Richard Leakey group and National Museums of Kenya. Before returning to Miami University in the fall of 1987, he presented invited lectures in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Asmara, Eritrea; and Nanning and Guilin, Peoples Republic of China.

Jerry was born May 3, 1933, in Floydada, Texas, and took pride in having gone from a Depression-era cotton farm and one-room school to become an internationally recognized scientist. He enjoyed traveling the world, laughter, and people; he never met a stranger and he always had a great story to tell. Literature and music were important to him; he often quoted from Shakespeare to the writings of Heinlein. Barely 16 years old when he graduated from Crosbyton, Texas, high school, he entered Wayland Baptist College on a music scholarship in voice; the next year, however, he transferred to Texas Tech University, where he earned a degree in agronomy in 1954. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1955 to 1959. Returning to Texas Tech, he received an M.S. in agronomy. He received his Ph.D. in botany from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1964, publishing his research results in the journal Nature while still working on his degree. He was treasurer and later president of the Phytochemical Society of North America; chair of the physiological section, Botanical Society of North America; member of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, Life Sciences; member of the screening committee for Fulbright Awards and the screening committee of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowships Foundation, Ohio and Michigan region; and more. He and his wife Frances were Danforth Faculty Associates; presidents of the McGuffey Laboratory School Parent-Teacher Organization and the Community Service Program for Foreign Students (COSEP), Oxford, Ohio; and regular helpers for Meals on Wheels. He was president of the Society of Miami Emeriti, 2005–2006; a member of the Oxford Men’s Club and the Oxford United Methodist Church. In addition to his wife Frances, his friend and partner for more than 52 years, he is survived by two daughters, Rachel (David) Pierce, Houston, Texas, and Martha (Mark) Gibbins, Monroe, Ohio; his sister, Margaret (Wayland) Jones, of Texas; three grandsons, aunts and uncles, numerous cousins, colleagues, friends, and five students who received support from or lived with the McClures as they pursued their education. According to his wishes, his ashes will be scattered in the pasture on the family farm where he grew up and where he developed his first interests in the natural world. A memorial service will be held in Kumler Chapel, Oxford, Ohio, on September 9, at 11:00 a.m. The family suggests donations in his memory to a food bank, the Salvation Army, Doctors Without Borders, or a charity of one’s choice.

This article was first published in the Oxford Press on May 10, 2006. It has been slightly modified to conform to ASPB News style.