Portrait of C. J. Alexopoulos, made during a visit to Greece in the early 1960's.

Vol. 90, Part 2

Trans. Br. my col. Soc. 90 (2), 153-158 (1988)

[ 153 ]

Primed in Great Britain

March 1988

c. J. ALEXOPOULOS: A SHORT HISTORY

On 17 March 1907 a baby was born in Chicago. Adescendant of the great boyar family, Sturdza,from the Byzantine fortress city of Pharnacia,Constantine John Alexopoulos grew up to attain aprominence in his own right (T able 1) and tocontinue a mycological tradition begun by Antonde Bary (T able 2).

Dr Alex. was six years old when the first of theBalkan War s was declared. Although the Alexo-poulos family had been living in the United States,Mr Alexopoulos was drafted int o th e Greek armyand the family returned to Athens, where theyremained through the Second Balkan War andWorld War I. Dr Alex. had begun secondaryschool at the Second Gymnasium of Piraeus whenthe family returned to Chicago in October of 1919.He was twelve years old and spoke virtually noEnglish. A tutor, Mr McBride, was found to teachhim Engl ish and simple mathematics ; Mr McBridealso got his student into high school without therequired grade school certificate. High school washard work, with long nights of first translatingEnglish readings into Greek, then finally masteringthe new language without translation, and catchingand keeping up with his classmates in subjectareas ; he graduated from Lane Technical HighSchool, Chicago, on time , in 1923.

From his early high-school days Dr Alex. evincedan interest in plants. In September 1923 he beganstudy at the Uni versity of Illinois in horticulture.Although an egregious course in botany nearl yswayed him to a major in chemi stry, in this thirdyear he studied plant pathology with FrederickLincoln Stevens. This course , together with theinspired laboratory instruction of the graduateassistant Wilhelm Solheim, captivated him anddirected his interest toward a life-long career inbotanical science. He graduated third in his classin horticulture in 1927 with a minor in botany(F ig. 1A).

With a $300-a-year assistantship Dr Alex.remained at Illinois to take up research on thecytology of microsporogenesis of raspberry hy-brids, for which he was awarded an M.Sc . degreein horticulture in 1928. He continued on at Illinoisin a doctoral programme with a half-time assis-tantship, lucky to have any kind of income duringthe early part of the American depression . Sum-mers were spent hunting for peach trees infectedwith peach yellows for the Illinois State Depart-ment of Agriculture and the Illin ois Natural

Vol. go, Part 1, was issued on 21 J anuary 198R7

History Survey (Fig. 1B, C) . As Dr Stevens'sresearch assistant he was able to obtain Glomerellacingulata ascornata with uv irradiation of Colleto-trichion cultures. His thesi s, ' A ComparativeStudy of Certain Pycnidial Fungi from Vitis ' ,dealt with cultural characteristics of fungi iso-lated from several varieties of grape and diffi-culties of delimiting species when only anamorphicstate s were present in culture. If at age twelve DrAlex. had been far behind in English, the deficiencyhad disappeared completely by age twenty-five; hisPh.D. thesis shows the beginnings of the lucidwriting style which helped to make his books andresearch pap ers famous. Dr Stevens, his majorprofessor, influenced him heavily, but he alsoprofited from association with B. T. Palm, a visit-ing professor from Sweden, during the last twoyears of his programme .

In 1932 with degree in hand, Dr Alex. sent outabout one hundred job-inquiry letters ; he receivednot a single response. The time was the worst ofthe depression and his family was not fairing welleither. Hi s father had lost a great deal of money inChicago real estate, and the small family company,a factory which made draperies for the MarshallField Company, had little business.

With no job to go to Dr Alex. remained atIllinois on a three-quarter-time appointment work-ing with Dr Charles Hottes. When in June of 1932Dr Stevens had a heart attack , Dr Alex. took overthe mycology and general botany classes andcontinued temporarily in thi s position after DrSteven's death until Illinois could recruit a ' bigname'. Jobs were not well advertised in tho se days,but Dr L. R. Tehon at the Illinois Natural Hi storySurvey consult ed for a company in Kent, Ohio,and through him Dr Alex. heard of a job at KentState University. He was hired there in 1935. JulietDowdy came to Kent State the next year as aninstructor in music . She was destined to becomehis friend, wife, and constant companion for therest of his life.

Dr Alex. took a year 's leave to work as a plantpathologist for a large Greek fertilizer and insect i-cide company, the Institute of Chemistry andAgriculture ' N . Canelopoulos', in 1938. Hisparents and sister Dora had returned to Greeceearlier, so he rejoined them during thi s time. WithWorld War II brewing he left Greece and arrivedin New York on 5 Augu st 1939. The arri val hadbeen uncertain because the ship's captain had been

M YC 90

154 C.J. Alexopoulos : a short history

Table 1. C. J. Alexopoulos

PROFESSION AL MEMBERSHIPS AND OFFICES

Mycological Society of America: Secretary-Treasurer (1954- 6), Vice President (1957), President-Elect (1958), .President (1959), Councilor (1966-8)

Botanical Society of America: President (1963)British Mycological SocietyIndian Mycological SocietyMycological Society of JapanInternational Mycological Association : President (1971- 7)American Association for the Advancement of Science: FellowAmerican Microscopical SocietyAmerican Society of Plant TaxonomistsTorrey Botanical ClubSigma Xi: President, Iowa Chapter (1959)

HONOURS

Fellow in Botany, University of Illinois (1931- 2)Fulbright Research Fellow, University of Athens (1954- 5)Botanical Society of America, Certificate of Merit (1967)Nineteenth Annual Lecturer, Mycological Society of America (1968)Fourth Annual Bessey Lecturer, Iowa State University (1971)Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Science (1976)Corresponding Member, Academy of Athens (1977 )Distinguished Mycologist, Mycological Society of America (1981)W. H. Weston Award for Teaching Excellence in Mycology, Mycological Society of America (1983)Honorary Member, British Mycological Society (1983)

------------------ -_._--- - --- - -- - '-'_ ._ _ ._ .-- -

expected to be recalled from the high seas to war atany time. Dr and Mrs Alex . were married 26August 1939 .

Once again his life was affected by war. Wh enthe United States entered into World War II DrAlex . was in his early th irties and in littl e dangerfrom the draft, but becau se of a strong sense ofduty and devotion to hi s native country hevolunteered for the medical corps. He was acceptedand told in October 1942 he would be called upsoon; this was the last he heard from the medicalcorps. In the meantime Dr Alex. heard of th eRubber Development Corporation (RD C) from aformer stu dent and inquired about th eir need forhelp. In March 1943 he was sent to Belem, Brazil.H is des ire to help in the war effort was furtherfrustrated because the RDC had no organizationthere. During th e first several weeks he spent muchof his time going to the movies. But here he alsosaw his first kapok tre e and observed the processingof Hevea latex for the first tim e. From Belern hewent to M anaus, a thousand miles up the AmazonRiver, where the RDC had taken over that city 'smagnific ent marble opera-house for headquarters.Finally he went to Benjamin Constant on th ePeruvian border, and was lucky to live with Italianpriests in a house with screened windows . H estayed in th is malaria-ridden jungle for the nextthirteen months, showing the local people the mostefficient method of tapping rubber trees and getting

th e precious product to the nearest collection sitefor transport to North America.

In April 1944, home on leave from Brazil andexpecting to return to Manau s with a promotion inthe RDC, Dr Alex . had an opportunity to go toGreece with the United Nation s Reliefand Rehabili -tation Agency (U N RRA) to help with agriculturalrecovery. After a three-months' course in Serbo-Croat ian by th e 'army method ', he went to Cairo.In late October he and hi s Briti sh counterpart wer eon the first relief ship to reach southern Greece.For the next three years he worked in Greece withUN RRA. Mrs Alex. was able to join him later , andshe also worked in the programme.

Dr Alex. was offered a job at Mi chigan StateUniversity for the fall of 1947. From that time heresumed a more normal academic life marked bypublication of Introductory Mycology in 1952 and aFulbright Senior Research Fell owship to Greeceduring th e 1954-5 academic year. At the time of DrG . W. Martin 's retirement from th e State Uni -versity of Iowa, Dr F. K . Sparrow turned downth e job and recommended his friend C. J. Alexo-poulos. After fulfill ing a year- long commitment toM ichigan State after his leave, Dr Alex. moved toIowa City as professor and dep artment head in1956 (Fig. 1D). Although he had begun to studyslime moulds while he was still at M ichigan StateUniversity, his int erest grew and extended tocultural studies of a variety of spec ies. At Iowa Dr

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C. J. Alexopoulos: a short history

Fig . I. (A) G raduation from the U niversi ty of Illinois, 1927. (B) Summer search for Peach Yellows Disease.(C) Photograph taken during his graduate-sc hoo l days. (D) Fa vouri te head-covering in cold weather and onfield tr ips.

Meredith Blackwell 157Alex. had a happy mycological and personalassociation with Dr Martin and they began col-laboration on The Myxomycetes (1969). Theyremained close friends for the rest of Dr Martin'slife. The second edition of Introductory Mycology(1962) appeared during the same years.

With the prospect of a job without administrativeduties Dr Alex. moved to the University of Texasat Austin in the fall of 1962. Except for summers atthe University of Virginia's Mountain Lake Bio-logical Station (1967 and 1969) and at TheUniversity of Washington, Seattle (1970), Dr Alex.spent the rest of his career and, indeed, the rest ofhis life in Austin. He often marvelled at theclimate, thrilled at being able to walk out of doorsin January without a top coat. In Austin hecontinued his interest in slime moulds and col-laborated with William D. Gray on the Biology ofthe Myxomycetes (1968). His part on The Myxo-mycetes with Dr Martin was completed at Austin.Dr Alex. and his friend Dr H. C. Bold wrote Algaeand Fungi (1967) and Dr Alex. joined Drs Bold andT. J. Delavoryas on the fourth edition of Mor-phology of Plants (1980). The third edition of hismycology textbook (1979), co-authored with hisstudent Charles Mims, also appeared after hisretirement.

While Dr Alex. had always been regarded as asuperb teacher of upper-class and graduate stu-dents, he had little opportunity at Texas to teachyounger students. During the last ten years atTexas he decided to offer a course he had alwayswanted to teach - one designed for lower level,non-science students on economic plants. Thecourse was tough, but popular. His straight-forward teaching style, characterized by superborganization and dry humour, served him well, notonly for graduate students but also for freshmenwho responded appreciatively to his style even inthe late 1970s.

Many of his productive years at Texas weremarked by severe physical handicap. A benignbrain tumour misdiagnosed in 1964 as myastheniagravis caused him to have years of double visionand slightly slurred speech before worse symptomsdeveloped. Similar problems recurred on severaloccasions throughout the rest of his life. Hislogical, immediate solution was to cover one eyewith a hand and read away relentlessly.

Dr Alex. had non-mycological interests as wellas mycological ones. He and Mrs Alex. were avidconcert-goers. He loved Mozart, but complainedoccasionally of too much modern music in asymphony programme. His own artistic sense wasexpressed in his photography. He and Mrs Alex.travelled widely to photogenic sites, but hiscomposition and artistry enhanced every scene. Of

his large collection of Kodachromes the favouritesof many viewers were of the Greek Isles. He wasalso fond of cats, and visitors to the Alex.s' homewill remember Melanie, the independent, long-haired, black and white cat, who lived to the oldage of about eighteen years. Dr Alex.'s politicalviews were essentially conservative, but he con-sidered every issue separately. He was vitally awareof injustices in the world and believed that politicalawareness and participation were a means ofcorrecting them.

Dr Alex. had a politely formal manner withpeople he did not know well; to those with whomhe was closely associated he was a warm andaffectionate friend. His presence and prominencewould have made it easy for him to proselytize andacquire larger numbers of students than he had.But he believed a student should choose an area ofstudy because of an intrinsic interest, not becauseof the short-lived influence of a single individual.For this reason most of his students were given agreat deal offreedom in their research programmes.He encouraged them to be as broad as possible andinsisted upon their learning and using new tech-niques in research. He had a warm relationshipwith his students, often walking through the labasking what was new, leaving specimens on amicroscope with a note requesting an identificationsigned with his distinctive script monogram. In theearly days of styrofoam several students are said tohave spent some time studying weathered examplesof the unfamiliar material.

Upon his mandatory retirement from teaching atage seventy in 1977, his students and friends met atTampa, Florida, during the Second InternationalMycological Congress and established the Alexo-poulos Prize to be administered by the MycologicalSociety of America. This prize was designated forrecognition of research accomplishments of ayounger member of the Society with the intentionthat this form of professional encouragementcontinue the personal encouragement Dr Alex.gave so effectively during his lifetime.

During Dr Alex.'s last year of life, Mrs Alex.provided devoted and constant care in their home.He died there the afternoon of 15 May 1986. MrsAlex. (Juliet Dowdy Alexopoulos), Austin, and hisonly sister, Dora Panos, Athens, Greece, survivehim.

Much of the information presented in thisbiography is from one of a series of lectures givenby Dr Alexopoulos to his students on Americanmycologists (1971). Additional information wastaken from his curriculum vitae (1971, 1977) andthe sources listed below. Andre Codrescu, De-partment of English, Louisiana State University,

C. J. Alexopoulos: a short history

kindly provided information on the Sturdza family.Drs Henry Aldrich, George Carroll, and CharlesMims mad e many comments which improved theoriginal version of the manuscript.

REFERE N CE S

ALEXOPOULOS, C. J. (1932). A comparative study ofcertain pycnidial fungi from Vi tis. Ph.D. T hes is,University of Illinois, Urbana.

A merican Men and Women of S cience. Phy sical andB iological S ciences (1979). i ath edition , p. 55. NewYork : Catte ll Press.

BRODIE, H. J . (1987). Consta nt ine John Alexopoulos,190 7-1 986. Mycologia 79, 163-165.

Who 's Who (1980-1981). 41st edn , p. 43 . Chicago :M arquis.

GILBERTSON, R. L. & BLACKWELL, M. (1981). A genealogyof American mycologists . Mycological S ociety of Ameri-ca N ewsletter 32(1), 32 (Abst. ).

M ER EDITH BLA CKWELL