Richard Sumner Cowan (January 23, 1921 – November 17, 1997) was an American

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Early life

Richard Sumner Cowan was born on January 23, 1921, in

Crawfordsville, Indiana Crawfordsville () is a city in Montgomery County, Indiana, Montgomery County in west central Indiana, United States, west by northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,306. The c ...

. His family moved to Florida and he was educated in the Tampa, Florida area. He returned to his birthplace in Indiana in 1938, and married Mary Frances Minnich in June 1941. In 1942 he received an AB degree from

Wabash College Wabash College is a private liberal arts men's college located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Founded in 1832, by a group of Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, the institution was originally named "The Wabash Teachers Seminary an ...

. He joined the US Navy in 1943 and was deployed to the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

as a Seabee. While serving in the US Navy, he collected plants on

Tinian Tinian () is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern ...

Island, despite the danger of being shot. He earned his master's degree at the University of Hawaii in 1948, and then got a job at

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

. He joined two expeditions to

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

in search of

tepuis A tepui , or tepuy (), is a member of a family of table-top mountains or mesas found in northern South America, especially in Venezuela, western Guyana, and northern Brazil. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the ...

. The first trip was 5 months long, beginning in October 1950. He completed his PhD in 1952 at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, after which he continued to work at the Botanical Garden. Richard went back to South America to gather some species in Amapa,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, and

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

. There was also a period of time that Richard worked at the Kew Botanical Gardens in Richmond, Kew, England prior to moving back to the USA.

Career

In May 1957, became an associate curator for the Department of Botany at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, where he continued his work in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. He then became the director of the Smithsonian Institution - Natural History Museum at a later date. In 1961 he was elected to the Washington Biologists' Field Club, and in the same year got a membership to the flora and fauna committee. He received several unexpected promotions while working for the Smithsonian: first, in 1962 he became an assistant director of the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

, then in 1965 he became director of the museum, a position which he kept until 1972. Richard received a New York Botanical Garden Distinguished Service Award in 1968, and the same year was awarded with the Henry Allen Gleason Award from the

. The same year, he received another honor, a Smithsonian Institution Special Achievement Award for his

Swartzia ''Swartzia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It was named in honor of Swedish botanist Olof Swartz and contains about 200 species. ''Swartzia'' is restricted in its geographical distribution to the New World Tropics, where ...

revision. Owing to his administrative skills, he was a secretary-general for the

International Botanical Congress International Botanical Congress (IBC) is an international meeting of Botany, botanists in all scientific fields, authorized by the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS) and held every six years, with the locatio ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

in 1969. In 1972 he became an organizer for the International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology. He was appointed as a senior botanist in the Department of Botany in the same year. He was also recognized with a medal in 1979 for taxonomic literature, work he did for the

National Agricultural Library The United States National Agricultural Library (NAL) is one of the world's largest agricultural research libraries, and serves as a national library of the United States and as the library of the United States Department of Agriculture. Locate ...

Retirement, marriage and death

Richard married Mary Frances Minnich in June 1941 and thereafter had a son Richard Ainesworth. Richard and Mary had a daughter Diedra Anne in September 1958 and adopted a son Charles Ian in 1961. He retired on October 31, 1985, and headed for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in December. In 1986 he moved to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

where he began a study of the Australian Acacia and other Australian mimosoids. On August 23, 1986, he married Roberta Ann Tobias, and adopted a son Michael Norman Sumner Cowan. In 1988 he was awarded the Commemorative Scroll Award from the Australian Systematic Botany Society for his work on Taxonomic Literature there. He received the Founder's Medal of the society in 1990 for the History and Bibliography of Natural History. He had a stroke in 1997, from which he recovered. After a fall, he died from the effects of brain trauma on November 17, 1997.

Selected publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan, Richard Sumner 20th-century Australian botanists Wabash College alumni Smithsonian Institution people United States Navy personnel of World War II People from Crawfordsville, Indiana 20th-century American botanists American expatriates in Australia Columbia University alumni 1921 births 1997 deaths Seabees Accidental deaths in Australia Accidental deaths from falls Deaths from head injury Military personnel from Indiana