OBITUARIES

Mary Musgrave

Mary Musgrave

Mary E. (Musgrave) Blasiak, 57, died of cancer on August 11 at home in Greenfield, Massachusetts. She was born June 4, 1954, in Ithaca, New York, and was the daughter of Robert B. and Mildred (Scheer) Musgrave. Mary’s education included a BA from Cornell University in biological sciences and a PhD (1986) from Duke University in botany/cell and molecular biology, where she was an NIH Predoctoral Fellow and a James B. Duke Fellow.

Mary was a very creative and highly regarded research scientist who specialized in space biology, studying the effects of microgravity on developmental and physiological processes in plants. She was the first person to grow plants from seed-to-seed in space. As a NASA investigator and adviser to the Russian space program, she had projects on both the MIR international space station and the U.S. space shuttle.

Mary served on the governing board of the American Society of Gravitational and Space Biology (1994–1999) and as its president from 1996 to 1997, as well as editor of the Gravitational and Space Biology Bulletin from 1997 to 2011. She also held a number of prestigious appointments, including the Ad Hoc Panel for the Evaluation of NASA Life Sciences (1998); chair of NASA Life Sciences Advisory Subcommittee (2000–2004); member of the USRA Science Council, Division of Space Life Sciences (1999–2004); member of the NASA Space Station Utilization Advisory Subcommittee (1998–2004); member of the NASA Advanced Life Support Science Technical Working Group (2000–2003); and member of the NASA Biological and Physical Research Advisory Committee (2000–2004). She was a long-time member of ASPB and its Southern Section, as well as a member of the Crop Science Society of America, the Crucifer Genetics Cooperative, Sigma Xi, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Mary began her professional career as a postdoc working in space biology at Duke University. In 1987 she joined the faculty at Louisiana State University/LSU AgCenter (Baton Rouge), was promoted with tenure in 1991, and rose to the rank of professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology in 1996. She served as associate dean in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, from 1999 to 2003. From there, she moved to the University of Connecticut, where she served as professor and head of the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture until illness forced her to step down earlier this year.

Throughout her career, Mary was an inspiration to her peers, a mentor to her students, a teacher of scientists, and a graceful and resourceful administrator. Those closest to her remember Mary as “insatiably curious, fiendishly clever, a lover of first principles, taking delight in how things work, and carrying her enthusiasm for life into every aspect of her existence” (1). She also displayed a remarkably sophisticated sense of humor. As a scientist, Mary always remembered that biology ultimately rests upon an understanding of the organism within the context of its environment.

She is survived by her husband of 33 years, John Blasiak; two sons, Samuel Musgrave Blasiak of Greenfield and Robert Mikhail Blasiak of Nagoya, Japan; one brother, Robert B. Musgrave of Miami, Florida; two sisters, Martha Fellows of Canandaigua, New York, and Margaret Bennett of Fairbanks, Alaska; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Richard McAvoy
University of Connecticut

Jim Siedow
Duke University

Marc Cohn
Louisiana State University Agricultural Center

Reference

1. Blasiak, M.E. The Recorder.