Ruth Starrett McGuire ( Colvin; February 19, 1893 – September 2, 1950) was an American

plant pathologist Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungus, fung ...

. She studied sugar cane diseases and

sugarbeets A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wit ...

Early life and education

Ruth Colvin was born in 1893. She earned her B.A. in 1914 and her M.A. in 1916, both from Indiana University Bloomington. After earning her Master's, she worked as a high school teacher for three years. She never earned her Ph.D. but she took classes at numerous other schools including George Washington University, Northwestern University, and the University of Maryland. She was married to Francis Brenton Starrett (in 1925), and secondly, to Charles McGuire (in 1940).

Career

McGuire started work at the United States Department of Agriculture. She retired with the title of Associate Cytologist. She did not stop working after retirement. She served as a research associate at the California Academy of Science from 1931 until 1942. While there, she studied the relationships between birds and insects. She also studied

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

, sugarbeets,

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

silkworm The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically imp ...

s, beetles and mosquitoes. McGuire was a member of the Botanical Society of Washington, the

Entomological Society of America The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, ...

, and the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists.

Death

A native of Flora, Indiana, McGuire died in 1950, aged 57, at a hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, from undisclosed causes; Newspapers.com website, ''Deaths: Monday September 4, 1950'', published in the Kokomo Tribune
/ref> she was survived by her husband and her brother. She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Early life and education

Career

Death

References

Further reading