Biography

American botanist who was the first curator of the North Carolina State University herbarium (NCSC). William Basil Fox, born in Talcott, West Virginia, received his doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1942 and subsequently served as a technical radar instructor for the U.S. War Department from 1942-1945. Following a year as assistant agronomist at the Experiment Station of the State College of Washington, Fox joined the botany department of North Carolina State University (then N.C. State College) Department of Botany as assistant professor in 1946. He became the first curator of the university herbarium (NCSC) in 1947, systematically arranging the collection and beginning accession records.

Praised by contemporaries for his teaching and investigation skills, Fox's tenure at NCSC was cut short in November 1952 by his accidental death at the hands of his not quite five-year-old son. The tragedy occurred early one morning after Fox had turned over to return to sleep after playing with his son. The child took a .22 calibre rifle, which Fox sometimes used to shoot twigs off trees for collecting, out of the closet and, not realising it was loaded, shot his father in the back of the head. Fox was 37 at the time. He was succeeded at North Carolina State University by Harry Whitford.

Sources:

A. Krings, 2001, "North Carolina State University Herbarium (NCSC): A Brief History and a Preliminary Overview of the Collections", Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, 117(4): 227.