Cornell University Memorial Statement for Professor Herbert Hice Whetzel (September 5, 1877 — November 30, 1944)
"Herbert Hice Whetzel died on November 30, 1944, after 42 years of distinguished service in the University. In failing health for more than ten years, and especially throughout the last five years when his daily life was increasingly fraught with pain and discomfort, he carried on in good cheer and amazing fortitude until the end. With his death the University lost one of the most widely known and eminent members of its faculty.
Professor Whetzel was born on September 5, 1877 on a farm near Avilla, Indiana where he spent his boyhood. He was graduated from Wabash College in June, 1902. In college he did his major work in botany and zoology, coming under the influence of Professor M. B. Thomas, an inspiring and altogether remarkable teacher. He came to Cornell University immediately on graduation and entered the Graduate School that autumn. Holding an appointment for four years under another great botanist, Professor G. F. Atkinson, who was both Head of the Department of Botany (then in the College of Arts and Science) and Botanist of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Professor Whetzel assisted with the Station work on plant diseases. In 1906, shortly before he expected to complete the requirements for the doctorate he was appointed Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Botany in the newly organized New York State College of Agriculture. In 1907, at his urgent request, his title was changed to that of Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology. Thus he held the first Professorship of Plant Pathology in the United States. He was advanced to a full professorship in 1909 and continued as head of the department until 1922 when he resigned as head to devote full time to teaching and research.
Professor Whetzel was well qualified for the task of establishing phytopathology as a distinct branch of biological science and of building a department of plant pathology at Cornell. He was exceedingly active and possessed exceptional leadership. He was convinced of the necessity for, and the practicability of, plant disease control and lost no opportunity to impress this conviction not only on his students but also on growers and on industrial and business concerns connected with agriculture. His enthusiasm for his work and for every project which he sponsored was contagious. A large number of able young men fired by his enthusiasm have gone forth into positions of importance and responsibility.
Though definitely emphasizing the practical aspects of plant pathology Professor Whetzel maintained at all times a deep interest in the taxonomy of the fungi. He became interested in plants and animals while a boy on the farm and made many collections of both, and of fossils as well. At the time of his death he possessed a herbarium which he had prepared while in high school, and treasured it highly. Wherever he traveled he collected fungi. The collection he began when he came to Ithaca became, through gift, the beginning of the departmental collection of fungi and diseased material, now consisting of some 26,000 specimens. Ever working for its betterment, the contribution made by Professor Whetzel to the building and maintenance of this valuable herbarium was very substantial.
A collecting trip to Puerto Rico in 1916, followed by two later trips, and a year in Bermuda in 1920-21 whence he returned with 500 specimens, marked the beginning of one of the largest collections of tropical American fungi in the world. Recent contributions have come particularly from a number of mycologists, mostly former students, in Puerto Rico, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, who have responded to the encouragement and enthusiasm of Professor Whetzel by collecting and sending him material. Even during his illness he continued to give time and effort to the identification of specimens and otherwise furthering these collections.
Professor Whetzel was an outstanding teacher and it is as such that he will doubtless be longest remembered. No phase of his work in the University interested him as much or profited more from his remarkable vigor. He could instill in students a considerable degree of his own abounding enthusiasm for the study of the fungi and plant diseases and their control. He had an intense interest in young people and gave much of his time and effort to helping them with their problems. He introduced several innovations in teaching procedures, was always refreshingly original with a bit of showmanship, saw problems through the eyes of the students, and was unusually successful in getting his students to assume responsibility and initiative. He contributed much to the organization of material and to the terminology used in courses in plant pathology in institutions throughout this country.
Although teaching was his principal interest, Professor Whetzel was productive in research. Early in his career he became interested in sclerotium-producing fungi, especially those in the genera Botrytis and Sclerotinia. Throughout the last thirty years of his life he worked on a monograph of genera of fungi in the family Sclerotiniaceae, publishing a number of important papers. Perhaps his most important contribution to this monographic work was the organization of the study based on his extensive collections and cultures, and the encouragement of active interest on the part of graduate students whose work he guided.
Professor Whetzel’s non-professional life was simple, with gardening a hobby that he skillfully furthered with much of the same drive that he put into his vocational activities. How varied his interests were was manifest in his garden where one could find fruits, shrubs, vegetables and flowers; native wild plants and horticultural creations rarely found; plants, carefully maintained, that were prized because they carried the symptoms of some interesting disease; an exceptionally fine collection of sedums; and a rock garden that received much of his attention in recent years. Arrangement was simple and was secondary to the plants themselves.
Professor Whetzel was a man of action, in a positive, constructive manner. He often ignored obstacles and disregarded conventions —- and seemed to get satisfaction out of so doing. He quickly grasped the substance of an issue and reached decisions rapidly. He was impatient with delay and mediocrity but at the same time was generous and fair in his appraisal of men and motives. Those who were associated with him in one way or another, will remember him for his intense enthusiasm for whatever came to occupy his attention; for his amazing drive in furthering his purposes; and for his general optimism and progressiveness. A pioneer in agricultural science and teaching, he exercised a substantial and sound influence at a time when the future of practices, ideals and objectives was being shaped. His contribution to the development of plant pathology and mycology in this country was notable; all workers in the field of biological science are indebted to him."