Couch, John Nathaniel, 1896-1986

John Nathaniel Couch (1896-1986) was a mycologist, professor of botany at the University of North Carolina, winner of scientific and teaching awards, and member of the National Academy of Sciences.

John Nathaniel Couch was born 12 October 1896 in Prince Edward County, Va. His father, John Henry Couch, was a Baptist minister, and his mother, Sally Love Terry Couch, was a school teacher. In 1927, Couch married Else Dorothy Ruprecht of Brooklyn, N.Y. They had two children, John Phillip Couch and Sally Louise Couch Gooder.

Couch received his secondary education in the public schools of Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, and North Carolina. In 1914, Couch entered Trinity College, now Duke University, but transferred in 1917 to the University of North Carolina to study medicine. His career in medicine was short-lived because he came under the influence of W. C. Coker of the Botany Department, and decided to major in botany instead. His education was interrupted by World War I. In September 1918, he joined the American Expeditionary Force in France. While he was in France, he studied at the University of Nancy and received his bachelor of arts from the University of North Carolina in absentia .

When Couch returned from France in July 1919, he taught science at Charlotte (N.C.) High School. In 1920, he began teaching at Chapel Hill High School while he completed his master's degree, which he received in 1922. While Couch worked on his doctorate, he was an instructor of botany at the University. He was made an assistant professor in 1924 after receiving his Ph.D. By 1932, Couch was a full professor, and, in 1945, he was awarded a Kenan chair.

Couch was known internationally for his research in mycology, the study of fungi. He began his work in the 1920s under his mentor, W. C. Coker, also a noted mycologist. His first work was on the sexuality and structure of aquatic fungi. He discovered a new type of reproduction in Dictyuchus called heterothalism. During this period, he also assisted Coker in his study of gasteromycetes. In 1928, he co-authored the book The Gasteromycetes of the Eastern United States and Canada with Coker.

In 1925, Couch became interested in tree diseases and specifically in Septobasidium, a fungus that grows on living trees and is always associated with scale insects. Before Couch did his study of Septobasidium, it was assumed that the fungus eventually destroyed scale insects and was not harmful to the trees it grew on. Couch's research, however, showed that the fungus and scale insects lived in symbiotic harmony at the expense of the host trees. In 1926, Couch was awarded a Natural Research Council Fellowship in Botany to pursue his research at the Carnegie Station for Experimental Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. In the summer of 1926, he joined the Johns Hopkins Botanical Exploration in Jamaicirca He spent the next year at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Couch's work on Septobasidium was published in a number of articles, and, in 1938, he published a monograph, The Genus Septobasidium This work earned Couch the Walker Grand Prize from the Boston Society of Natural History in 1939, and, in 1943, a membership in the National Academy of Sciences, one of the first awarded to a Southern scientist.

In addition to his research on Septobasidium, Couch is also noted for his discovery in 1949 of the genus Actinoplanes, an organism that may provide a link between fungi and bacteria. Starting in the 1960s, Couch devoted his attention to studying Coelomomyces, a parastic fungus that attacks the larvae of the malarial mosquito. He published a monograph, The Genus Coelomomyces, with former student, Dr. Charles Bland, in 1985.

Couch was active in various professional organizations throughout his career. He was president of the American Mycological Society, 1943; president of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, 1937-1938; a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and chairman of the botany section, 1962; a special advisor to the U.S. Office of Research and Development, 1944; and cultural exchange specialist to India; 1961.

Couch was chairman of the botany department at the University of North Carolina, 1944-1960. He retired in 1968 but still remained active in the department as Emeritus Kenan Professor. He was deeply opposed to the merger of the Botany Department with the Zoology Department to form a Biology Department in 1982 and was active in the unsuccessful effort to prevent the merger.

Couch donated land to the University in 1977, to be sold and the proceeds used to support botany studies. In 1984, the money from the sale of the land went to establish the John N. Couch Professorship in Botany. In 1979, the Botany Library was renamed in his honor. John Couch died in Chapel Hill, 16 December 1986.