Krochmal, Arnold, 1919-

Arnold Krochmal received his B.S. in Pomology from North Carolina State College in 1942, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. He served as Chairman of the Department of Horticulture of the Escuela Agricola Panamericana in Honduras, and was Director of Agricultural Research and Horticulturist on the Wyoming team in Afghanistan. From 1971 until 1977 he served as Adjunct Professor of Botany at North Carolina State University. He also served as Economic Botanist at the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, U.S. Forest Service, in Asheville, N.C. He was a prolific author of articles and monographs. Among his books are Guide to Medicinal Plants (written with his wife and fellow botanist, Connie Krochmal), Tropical Horticulture and Horticultura Practica. In 1973, he and his wife donated a sizable collection of books to the D. H. Hill Library for the commemoration and study of Russian and Soviet Jews.

From the description of Arnold Krochmal papers, 1939-1978 [manuscript]. (North Carolina State University). WorldCat record id: 465453137

Arnold Krochmal was born January 30, 1919, in New York to Morris and Leah Krochmal. The son of immigrant parents, he was raised in the Bronx. He earned a B.S. in Pomology from North Carolina State College in 1942, and served in the Army from 1942 to 1946. He then earned the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University.

Krochmal served as an instructor in horticulture at the New Mexico Agriculture Experiment Station from 1947 to 1949, was a Fulbright professor in Greece from 1952 to 1953, and then worked as the chief research advisor of the Wyoming Team, in Kabul, Afghanistan from 1957 to 1959. He was the head of the department of horticulture, Escuela Agricola Panamericana, El Zamorano, Honduras from 1960 to 1961, and then worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a research botanist in the Virgin Islands from 1961 to 1966. Other professional experience included working for the United States Forest Service as an economic botanist, and project leader for timber-related crops in Berea, Kentucky, from 1961 to 1966, and as an economic geographer, College of the Virgin Islands, 1964 to 1966. He was the summer visiting professor at Wisconsin State University in 1966, and the fall visiting professor at Berea College in 1967.

In 1970 he married Connie Brite, a writer from Appalachian Kentucky. The Krochmals came from different backgrounds, but they shared a deep concern that science and research should do more than serve as a source of esoteric subject matter for rarely read scholarly publications. They felt that the citizen had a right to know what was going on in the world of science. Dr. Krochmal said of himself and his wife, "We work as a team." Together, through collaborative writing and teaching, they mastered the skill of communicating to a broad audience. The couple had three children, Stephen Glen, Maurice Manfred, and Walter Lyle.

Arnold Krochmal was the principal economic botanist at the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station in Asheville, North Carolina, from 1971 to 1982. From 1971 until 1977 Krochmal also served as an adjunct professor of botany at North Carolina State University. During that time he was a guest of Jardin Botanico Uribe, Medellin, Columbia, and a senior research fellow at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, Holland. In 1980. Krochmal was a guest lecturer at the Academy of the U.S.S.R., Main Botanical Garden, and that year he also served as the chairperson of the Structure of Tropical Rain Forests Working Party, for the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. He was affiliated with the Institute of Tropical Forestry, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, from 1982 to 1983, and chairman of the Division of Natural Sciences, World University, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, 1982 to 1983. Additionally he was an adjunct professor at Atlanta University, and worked as a consultant to the Agency for International Development, the International Executive Corps, Volunteers for International Technical Assistance, and the governments of Surinam, Jamaica, Montserrat, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, and the British Virgin Islands.

Arnold Krochmal wrote prolifically. Among his books are Guide to Medicinal Plants (written with his wife), Tropical Horticulture, and Horticultura Practica . He and his wife donated a sizable collection of books to the D. H. Hill Library for the commemoration and study of Russian and Soviet Jews. Arnold Krochmal died September 2, 1993, in Asheville, North Carolina.

From the guide to the Arnold Krochmal Papers, 1939 - 1978, (Special Collections Research Center)