American botanist. Francis Whittier Pennell, a world authority on the Scrophulariaceae, was born into a Quaker family and grew up on a farm outside Philadelphia. As a child he was excused from farm duties because he was considered delicate. He also carried into adulthood a phobia of water from being repeatedly told that getting his feet wet would lead to illness. His fears and insecurities, however, did not prevent him from undertaking a vast amount of field work in remote wilderness. Outside the United States, his botanical explorations took him to Colombia with H.H. Rusby in 1917 to search for wild stands of Cinchona for wartime supplies of quinine, to Peru and Chile in 1925, and to various parts of Mexico over several seasons between 1934 and 1940. His last mission was to Peru in 1948.

Pennell's interest in the Scrophulariaceae began as a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, when the head of the botany department, John Macfarlane, suggested that he choose one of the genera of this family as a topic for his thesis. After receiving his doctorate in 1913, and a one-year post-doctoral fellowship at the university, he joined the staff of the New York Botanical Garden as associate curator. In 1921 he returned to Philadelphia to assume the post of curator of plants at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Pennell was the author of The Scrophulariaceae of Eastern Temperate North America (1935) and at the time of his death was completing a companion volume for the western United States. He also wrote prolifically on plants outside his chosen group, on taxonomic problems, and on botanical history, such as the brief lives of C.S. Rafinesque and Thomas Nuttall. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Botanical Society of America, the Torrey Botanical Club, and the Pennsylvania Botanical Society. In 1942 he served as president of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, and for many years he was president of the Philadelphia Botanical Club and editor of its journal, Bartonia.

Sources:
W.H. Camp, 1952, "Francis Whittier Pennell", Taxon, 1(5): 83
W.L. Dix, 1953, "Francis W. Pennell",.