Howard Alvin Crum (July 14, 1922 – April 30, 2002) was an American

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

dedicated to the study of

mosses Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and horn ...

, and was a renowned expert on the

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

bryoflora.

Early life

Crum was born in

Mishawaka, Indiana Mishawaka is a city on the St. Joseph River, in Penn Township, St. Joseph County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 51,063 as of the 2020 census. Its nickname is "the Princess City". Mishawaka is a principal city of the South ...

, and after he graduated high school, attended Western Michigan Teachers College (now

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

). Initially a German major,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

interrupted his education. He joined the

United States Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

in 1942 and served in the Intelligence Division. He was stationed in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

working as a

cryptographer Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

. After the war, Crum returned to Western Michigan and changed his major from German to botany. He received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in 1947. The fall after receiving his undergraduate degree, he began his graduate work at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He completed his Ph.D. in 1951 under direction of Harley H. Bartlett. Upon finishing his degree, he went to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

for a 2-year postdoc, working with William C. Steere to study moss specimens from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, and

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

Career

In 1953, Crum left California and accepted a position in the Department of Biology at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

. After one year, he left to take up the Curator of Cryptogams position at the

National Museum of Canada The national museums of Canada are the nine museums in Canada designated under the federal ''Museums Act'' and operated by the Government of Canada. The national museums are responsible for "preserving and promoting the heritage of Canada and all it ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. Crum worked there for 11 years, and was instrumental in building up their bryological collection. In 1965, he accepted a position as Associate Professor of Botany at the University of Michigan. He began to work closely with Lewis E. Anderson on a compendium of the mosses of eastern North America. Their research was published in 1981, and recognized about 750 species. Crum began to teach summer bryology classes at the

University of Michigan Biological Station The University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) is a research and teaching facility operated by the University of Michigan. It is located on the south shore of Douglas Lake in Cheboygan County, Michigan. The station consists of 10,000 acres ( ...

. Realizing that no adequate textbook was available, Crum wrote his own, entitled ''Mosses of the Great Lakes Forest''. Crum soon turned his attention to the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Sphagnum ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...

''. He went on to publish over 100 taxa new to science. Around this time, he and

Aaron John Sharp Aaron John Sharp (July 29, 1904 – November 16, 1997), known professionally as Jack Sharp, was an American botanist and bryologist, considered an expert on mosses. Early life Sharp was raised on a dairy farm near East Liberty, Ohio. He atte ...

produced the ''Moss Flora of Mexico''. Crum gained much knowledge into the Mexican moss flora through his doctoral dissertation, which he used to help create this modern moss treatment for a tropical region, the first of its kind. In the meantime, he continued to publish his ''Sphagnum'' research. He soon gained interest in the

liverworts The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ge ...

and

hornworts Hornworts are a group of non-vascular Embryophytes (land plants) constituting the division Anthocerotophyta (). The common name refers to the elongated horn-like structure, which is the sporophyte. As in mosses and liverworts, hornworts have a ...

, and continued his studies until his death from stomach cancer at age 79.

Legacy

Crum is the namesake of three genera: ''

Bryocrumia ''Bryocrumia vivicolor'' is a rheophytic species of moss belonging to the family Hypnaceae, and is the sole representative of the genus ''Bryocrumia''. The genus has been found in moist, shady sites at moderate elevation in the United States, C ...

'', '' Crumia'', and '' Crumuscus''; and eight

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

: ''Bellia crumii'', ''Encalypta brevicollis'' subsp. ''crumiana'', ''Fissidens crumii'', ''Macromitrium crumianum'', ''Ochrobryum crumii'', ''Racomitrium crumianum'', ''Schlotheimia crumii'', and ''Sphagnum crumii''.

Selected publications

* * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crum, Howard A. Bryologists Botanists with author abbreviations American botanists 1922 births 2002 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II University of Michigan alumni