Paul Leslie Redfearn Jr. (1926–2018) was an American professor of botany, specializing in mosses and

liverwort 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 ...

s. He was the president of the

American Bryological and Lichenological Society The American Bryological and Lichenological Society is an organization devoted to the scientific study of all aspects of the biology of bryophytes and lichen-forming fungi and is one of the nation's oldest botanical organizations. It was origina ...

from 1971 to 1973. He was the mayor of

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

from 1978 to 1981.

Biography

After graduating from high school, Paul L. Redfearn Jr. served in the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

in 1944 and 1945. He graduated in 1948 with B.S. from

Florida Southern College Florida Southern College (Florida Southern, Southern or FSC) is a private college in Lakeland, Florida. In 2019, the student population at FSC consisted of 3,073 students along with 130 full-time faculty members. The college offers 50 undergradu ...

and in 1949 with M.S. from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

. From 1950 to 1954 he served in the United States Army Medical Service Corps in California and Japan. He graduated from Florida State University with Ph.D. in 1957. He taught botany in the department of biology at Missouri State University from 1957 to 1988, when he retired as professor emeritus. In

, Redfearn served from 1973 to 1977 as a city council member in Zone 4 and from 1978 to 1981 as the mayor. (Springfield has council-manager government and Springfield's City Council has 4 Zones: numbered 1 for NW, 2 for NE, 3 for SW, 4 for SE. National Avenue in Zone 4 forms the eastern boundary of Missouri State University.) Redfearn received several awards. In 1965 he was elected a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. He was a member of many organizations and served as a volunteer curator at the Norland Henderson Herbarium of

Powell Gardens Powell Gardens, Kansas City's botanical garden, is a botanical garden in Kingsville, Missouri, United States, east of Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City. It features 6,000 varieties of plants, with 225,000 plants in seasonal displays, and is ope ...

Kingsville, Missouri Kingsville is a city in west central Johnson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 245 at the 2020 census. History Kingsville was platted in 1856. The community was named for General William King, a first settler. A post office ca ...

. Redfearn was from 1986 to 1992 the editor-in-chief of the journal ''Missouriensis'' of the Missouri Native Plants Society. In 1949 in Polk County, Florida, Paul Redfearn Jr. married Donna Alice Rubie Whitten. Upon his death he was survived by his widow, two sons, Paul Leslie III and James Jeffrey, two granddaughters, one step-grandson, and five great grandchildren. Paul L. Redfearn III became a lawyer with a national reputation and from 1992 to 1993 was the president of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys.

Selected publications

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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Redfearn, Paul Leslie 1926 births 2018 deaths Bryologists 20th-century American botanists 21st-century American botanists Florida Southern College alumni University of Tennessee alumni Florida State University alumni Missouri State University faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Politicians from Springfield, Missouri