Ronald Arling Pursell: Je ne regrette rien

Abstract

Ronald Arling Pursell died on 17 March 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri, age 83, after a short but intense struggle from complications brought on by an opportunistic bacterial [Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Schroter) Migula] infection. He was weakened at the time of this infection and much immunosuppressed due to a lengthy battle with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Ron Pursell was born on 7 December 1930 in the village of Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania. Upper Black Eddy is in extreme northern Bucks County (established by William Penn in 1682), and despite its proximity to Philadelphia (45 miles north) and New York City (58 miles west) it has always been sparsely populated. There are innumerable Pursells in and around Upper Black Eddy and all apparently trace their ancestory back to John Pursell, one of the area’s three original settlers who immigrated from Ireland around 1750. The Upper Black Eddy Pursells pronounce their name in the English manner, “persal,” but Americans invariably say “per-sel.” Ron hardly ever corrected this mispronouncation and when asked why, he said having gone so far through life with it mispronounced it didn’t bother him anymore. However, he did add that some Upper Black Eddy Pursells had abandoned “per-sal” for “per-sel.” From the first through eighth grades Ron was educated in a two-room schoolhouse just across the street from his house in Upper Black Eddy. To continue his education Ron traveled 5 miles and crossed the Delaware River to attend high school in Frenchtown, New Jersey, from which he graduated in 1948. Ron was early on marked as a different individual from most other Upper Black Eddy students. He came from a large, working-class family, none of whom had attended college. Nevertheless, by the seventh grade he was determined to enroll and graduate from college. While in high school Ron discovered the Texaco-sponsored Saturday radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, and although no one in his family listened to opera he became a life-long opera fan. However, his musical interests were broad and curiously eclectic, ranging from classical to country and western. During his high school years Ron developed an interest in plant biology; was an accomplished pianist; and loved to memorize poetry for fun. In 1948 Ron matriculated at the Pennsylvania State University and graduated in 1952 with a B.S. in Botany. He continued at Penn State and, with the aid of a Teaching Assistantship, graduated in 1954 with a M.S. in Botany (thesis: A Flora of Centre County, Pennsylvania). At that time Ron was primarily interested in vascular plants, but while collecting vascular plants for his Master’s thesis became intrigued and fascinated by the bryophytes he encountered. He continued his education (this time centered on bryology) at Florida State University and graduated with a Ph.D. in Botany (dissertation: A taxonomic revision of North American Fissidens, section Bryoidium) in 1957 (Fig. 1). Lewis E. Anderson (Fig. 3B) greatly encouraged and influenced Ron’s decision to work on Fissidens sect. Bryoidium as his Ph.D. dissertation topic by discussions they had on the group at a meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists. Ron went on to spend much of his scientific career studying the genus Fissidens, and much later in life when asked why he decided to work on the group answered simply “I liked the way the plants laid flat under a cover slip on a microscope slide.” Fissidens is a difficult moss genus with a considerable number of Southern Hemispheric species that for many years have been taxonomically tamed by the Fissidens Grand Triumvirate: Ron (New World), Ida Bruggeman-Nannenga (Africa), and Zen Iwatsuki (Asia). At Florida State Ron studied under the supervision of 4 Corresponding author’s e-mail: Bruce.Allen@mobot.org DOI: 10.1639/0007-2745-118.3.325