William Chambers Coker
William Chambers Coker | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 24, 1872 |
| Died | June 27, 1953 (aged 80) |
| Alma mater |
|
| Known for | Establishing the Coker Arboretum |
| Spouse |
Louise Venable (m. 1934) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1902–1945) |
| Thesis | On the Gametophytes and Embryo of Taxodium (1901) |
Academic advisors | Duncan S. Johnson |
William Chambers Coker (October 24, 1872 – June 27, 1953) was an American botanist and mycologist. He established the Coker Arboretum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a named chair professor of botany and a chair of the botany department, and he served as president of the Botanical Society of America in 1924.
Early life and education
[edit]Coker was born in Hartsville, South Carolina on October 24, 1872.[1][2] Coker was the third of seven children, of the businessman James Lide Coker;[1] he was the brother of agriculturalist David Robert Coker.[3][4]
He graduated from South Carolina College in 1894 with a BS and then worked at Atlantic National Bank in Wilmington, North Carolina, rising to vice president in 1896, until returning to academia in 1897. Next he earned a PhD at Johns Hopkins University in 1901 with a study of the plant embryonic development of bald cypress under Duncan S. Johnson, titled On the Gametophytes and Embryo of Taxodium.[1][5] After his PhD, he studied in Bonn, Germany with Eduard Strasburger 1901–1902.[3][5]
Career
[edit]Coker taught for several years in the summer schools of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, then in 1902 became associate professor of botany at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).[1] He established the Coker Arboretum in 1903. He was made professor in 1907 and Kenan professor of botany in 1920.[3] He served as chair of the department of botany for 36 years and retired from teaching in 1945.[6] He also served as chairman of the UNC's Buildings and Grounds Committee for 30 years.[5]
Coker was a member of many scientific societies and the author of The Plant Life of Hartsville, S. C. (1912); The Trees of North Carolina (with Henry Roland Totten) (1916); The Saprolegniaceae of the United States (1921); and Trees of the Southeastern States (1934).[3][5] Besides these he contributed over one hundred articles on morphology and botany to scientific journals.[3][5] In 1903, he was chief of the botanic staff of the Bahama Expedition of the Geographical Society of Baltimore.[3] He was editor of the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 1904–1945.[6]
He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science[3] and served as president of the Botanical Society of America in 1924.[7] He is honored in the name of Cokeromyces, which is a pathogenic fungus.[8]
Personal life and death
[edit]Coker married Louise Manning Venable, a daughter of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) president Francis Preston Venable, on October 28, 1934.[5]
He died on June 27, 1953.[2][5] His papers were collected at the UNC library.[6]
Species described
[edit]- Lactarius subtorminosus Coker (1918)[9]
- Multifurca furcata (Coker) Buyck & V. Hofstetter (2008) – as Lactarius furcatus[9]
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
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References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 Gilmour, Ron (October 24, 2020). "William Chambers Coker". North Carolina Botanical Garden. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Retrieved August 12, 2025.
- 1 2 "Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953". Library of Congress. August 4, 2025. Retrieved August 3, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 COKER, William Chambers, in Who's Who in America (14th edition, 1926); p. 480
- ↑ Coclanis, Peter A. (Fall 1999). "David R. Coker, Pedigreed Seeds, and the Limits of Agribusiness in Early-Twentieth-Century South Carolina" (PDF). Business and Economic History. 28 (1). Cambridge University Press: 105–114. Retrieved August 12, 2025.
David's younger brother William C. Coker took a Ph.D. in botany at The Johns Hopkins University, establishing excellent contacts at the Department of Agriculture while in the Washington area, before joining the faculty at the University of North Carolina in 1902.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Couch, John N.; Matthews, Velma D. (1954). "William Chambers Coker". Mycologia. 46 (3): 372–383. JSTOR 4547836.
- 1 2 3 "William Chambers Coker Papers, 1884-1956 (bulk 1914-1950)". University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: University Library. Retrieved August 3, 2026.
- ↑ "BSA Presidents". Botanical Society of America. Retrieved August 3, 2026.
- ↑ Alvarez OA, Maples JA, Tio FO, Lee M (1995). "Severe diarrhea due to Cokeromyces recurvatus in a bone marrow transplant recipient". American Journal of Gastroenterology. 90 (8): 1350–1. PMID 7639250. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 25, 2020.(subscription required)
- 1 2 Coker WC. (1918). "The Lactarias of North Carolina". Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society. 34 (1): 1–62 (see p. 18).
- ↑ International Plant Names Index. Coker.
External links
[edit]
- 1872 births
- 1953 deaths
- People from Hartsville, South Carolina
- University of South Carolina alumni
- Johns Hopkins University alumni
- American mycologists
- 19th-century American botanists
- 20th-century American botanists
- 20th-century American male writers
- American educators
- American male non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American science writers
- Botanical Society of America
- Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science