Biography

American school teacher and plant collector in the south-eastern United States. During his life Delzie Demaree held numerous teaching positions in Indiana, Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi, his vocation allowing him to conduct fieldwork in all of these regions. Collecting and studying plants in the field was his real calling in life and it seems teaching was merely a means to pursue it. Travelling tirelessly in his spare time, Demaree would use the greyhound which he would stop at any point along the journey if he had spotted an interesting specimen to collect. He was particularly interested in the vascular plants of Arkansas and published both an "Annotated list of the ferns and fern allies of Arkansas" (1979) and "A catalogue of the vascular plants of Arkansas" (1943). In total Demaree amassed a herbarium of over 50,000 plants which was donated to the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas (SMU), a herbarium which was permanently transferred to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) in 1987.

Born in Benham, Indiana, Demaree attended Danville High School before entering service in the First World War. With the US Marine Corps he fought in France and suffered serious damage to one of his feet (which did not prevent him from undertaking long hikes during the rest of his life). On returning he began to study botany at Indiana University and received a BSc in 1920. The following year Demaree was awarded a master's degree from Chicago University and would later gain a doctorate from Stanford University for his thesis entitled "The water relations of Aesculus californica (Spach) Nuttall.". From 1926 until 1956 he was based in Arkansas, teaching at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (1926-1930), Monticello Agricultural and Mechanical College (1936-1946) and Arkansas State University at Jonesboro (1946-1953). Married to Catherine Finch Lane in 1920 Demaree had three children and died of pneumonia following surgery on a broken hip in Texas, where he had resided since 1981.

Sources:
Anon, 1987, "Deaths: Delzie Demaree", Taxon, 36(4): 802
Delzie Demaree, Collectors of the UNC Herbarium, The University of North Carolina University:
http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/Collectors/Demaree.htm.

Biography

American school teacher and plant collector in the south-eastern United States. During his life Delzie Demaree held numerous teaching positions in Indiana, Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi, his vocation allowing him to conduct fieldwork in all of these regions. Collecting and studying plants in the field was his real calling in life and it seems teaching was merely a means to pursue it. Travelling tirelessly in his spare time, Demaree would use the greyhound which he would stop at any point along the journey if he had spotted an interesting specimen to collect. He was particularly interested in the vascular plants of Arkansas and published both an "Annotated list of the ferns and fern allies of Arkansas" (1979) and "A catalogue of the vascular plants of Arkansas" (1943). In total Demaree amassed a herbarium of over 50,000 plants which was donated to the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas (SMU), a herbarium which was permanently transferred to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) in 1987.

Born in Benham, Indiana, Demaree attended Danville High School before entering service in the First World War. With the US Marine Corps he fought in France and suffered serious damage to one of his feet (which did not prevent him from undertaking long hikes during the rest of his life). On returning he began to study botany at Indiana University and received a BSc in 1920. The following year Demaree was awarded a master's degree from Chicago University and would later gain a doctorate from Stanford University for his thesis entitled "The water relations of Aesculus californica (Spach) Nuttall.". From 1926 until 1956 he was based in Arkansas, teaching at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (1926-1930), Monticello Agricultural and Mechanical College (1936-1946) and Arkansas State University at Jonesboro (1946-1953). Married to Catherine Finch Lane in 1920 Demaree had three children and died of pneumonia following surgery on a broken hip in Texas, where he had resided since 1981.

Sources:
Anon, 1987, "Deaths: Delzie Demaree", Taxon, 36(4): 802
Delzie Demaree, Collectors of the UNC Herbarium, The University of North Carolina University:
http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/Collectors/Demaree.htm.