Wellman, Frederick Lovejoy, 1897-

Frederick Lovejoy Wellman (1897-1994) was a plant pathologist most known for his reasearch on coffee rust disease ( Hemileia vastatrix ). Born in Angola, Africa, Wellman moved to Kansas as a child. He attended Fairmount College, (now Wichita State University ), receiving his A.B. degree in 1920 . He then attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he earned his M.A. in 1924 and Ph.D. in 1928 .

After graduation, Wellman began work as a plant pathologist for the United Fruit Company in Honduras . Wellman focused on Fusarium oxysporum, a fungus that causes disease in bananas. Wellman also worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences (IICA or Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agriacute;colas) in Turrialba, Costa Rica . In addition, he was the head of the Department of Plant Pathology and Botany at the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras . Throughout his career, Wellman traveled around the world studying coffee and preparing for coffee rust's eventual spread to the western hemisphere. By the time he retired, he had spent 24 years in the tropics, one year in Turkey, and one year near the equator.

Upon his retirement from the University of Puerto Rico in 1963, Wellman accepted the position of visiting professor in the plant pathology department at North Carolina State University . The university made him a Professor Emeritus in 1971 . During his tenure at North Carolina State University, Wellman wrote three books, Plant Diseases: An Introduction for the Layman (1971, The Natural History Press), Tropical American Plant Disease (1972, The Scarecrow Press, Inc.), and Dictionary of Tropical American Crops and Their Diseases . Wellman also published more than 200 other works, including his 1961 book, Coffee: Botany, Civilization and Utilization (Interscience Publishers).

Wellman was an active leader in the plant pathology community. He founded the Caribbean Division of the American Phytopathological Society (APS), serving as its first president. He also served as councilor of the division and chairman of the APS Committee on International Cooperation . The Caribbean Division of the APS awarded him with the Award of Merit for distinguished service in 1971 . In 1974, Wellman became a Fellow of the APS.

In addition to the APS, Wellman was a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Sigma, the Washington Academy of Sciences, and the Puerto Rico Academy of Arts and Sciences . He was also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science .

In his personal life, Wellman was married to Dora U'Ren Wellman for 72 years. The couple had one son, Frederick Creighton Wellman IV . Wellman died in Raleigh 21 April 1994. His wife predeceased him on 24 December 1990.

From the guide to the Frederick L. Wellman Papers, 1915 - 1981, (Special Collections Research Center)