Saying what many students think: “Students of all ages are thankful
that her appreciation of the plant kingdom and the world around her
touched them and made their lives.”
Jonathan Ertelt, Vanderbilt Magazine, Summer 2014 issue, Quarterman Was More Than a Biology Professor and Ecologist, Continue reading
Here’s
a video about Elsie,
A Crusader for Conservation,
19 September 2014,
by Tennessee’s Wild Side, “The Emmy Award winning show produced through the generosity of the Jackson
Foundation, Tennessee State Parks, and the Tennessee Wildlife Federation.”
Lots of good pictures, some video snippets of Elsie, and some narration by her nephew Patrick and by Biologist Tom Hemmerly, who reminds us of Elsie’s work at Radner Lake, in addition to her cedar glades work.
Ranger Buddy Ingram explains her biggest contribution may have been
in getting numerous different segments of society to cooperate
in saving whole ecologies.
Botanist Kim Sadler and others explain how inspiring all that is to generations
of students.
As Elsie said in 2006:
Continue readingThe general public needs to know what’s around them. They need to be learning that there’s a world that is not paved. There are lots of things that have life and function in the whole scheme, people as well as plants and animals. Not just dogs you’ve got on a leash, but animals that live out there, are part of the whole ecosystem.
Her students Carol and Jerry Baskin wrote for the
July 2014 Southeastern Biology newsletter of
The Association of Southeastern Biologists,
OBITUARY: Professor Elsie Quarterman: In Memorium, 1910-2014
Dr. Elsie Quarterman known fondly to her students as EQ passed away on 9 June 2014 at her home in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 103 years. She was born on 28 November 1910 in Valdosta, Georgia. Dr. Quarterman obtained her B. A. degree from Georgia State Women’s College (now Valdosta State University) in 1932, Continue reading
Posted with permission. I added the links. -jsq
Remembering Elsie Quarterman
by Paul Somers, Ph.D.
Retired State Botanist, Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program
and former botanist, Tennessee Natural Heritage Program
Not wanting to miss a chance to pay tribute to my friend, the 103+ year old Dr. Elsie Quarterman, I’m sitting down to reflect on my remembrances of this wonderful woman who befriended me and many other botanical and conservation colleagues. It was the summer of 1976 when I moved to Nashville to join the young staff of the Tennessee Heritage Program as its first botanist. The program, now well established with the State Department of Environment and Conservation, benefited greatly from the prior work of Dr. Quarterman (Elsie) and many of her graduate students at Vanderbilt University who had done vegetation and rare plant studies in the Central Basin of Tennessee.
For help with understanding and conserving the best examples of cedar glades and their many endemic, nearly endemic, or otherwise rare Tennessee plant species, I and other colleagues frequently turned to Elsie and her Continue reading
Received 13 June 2014 and permission to publish granted today. -jsq
From: J Richard Carter
To: Patrick QuartermanI am very sorry to hear about Dr. Quarterman. She was a remarkable person. I started graduate school at Vanderbilt in 1978, a few years after Dr. Quarterman retired, so I didn’t have the privilege of taking her courses. However, she was still very much a presence in the department, attending seminars and interacting with faculty and students informally in the departmental conference room.
I also remember that she very kindly gave me a set of reprints of her classic Continue reading
Nina Cardona of WPLN Nashville Public Radio talked about
pioneering ecologist Dr. Elsie Quarterman; here’s the audio:
Emily Siner // Nashville Public Radio // WPLN 90.3 FM // Enterprise Reporter
And here’s
WPLN’s text version of the same story.
The radio story draws on the video by MTSU Center for Cedar Glade Studies of the April 2008 dedication to Dr. Elsie Quarterman of the annual wildflower festival at Cedars of Lebanon State Park east of Nashville, Tennessee.
A memorial service will be held 10AM this Saturday 21 June 2014 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 West End Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee, with a reception at the church following the service. See the Elsie blog page for many more stories and pictures of Aunt Elsie.
-jsq
Here is video of the 11 April 2008 dedication of the Elsie Quarterman Cedar Glade Wildflower Festival at Cedars of Lebanon State Park,
posted on YouTube 29 January 2009 by the MTSU Center for Cedar Glade Studies.
-jsq
From solar electric fences to selling solar power for profit,
John S. Quarterman will talk about
solar opportunities for farmers and some legal hurdles,
at
South Georgia Growing Local 2014:
Why solar power is the fastest growing industry in the world and how to apply it to agriculture. Financing is the main obstacle. Some ways to get financing, and at least one law that could be changed to help with that.
His conference bio: Continue reading
Amy Brown will talk about making fibers into fabric at South Georgia Growing Local 2014:
This lecture/ workshop will explore making yarn, thread, and cloth. Preparing the natural fiber, the hand spinning process, and  weaving will be demonstrated. There will be a  hands-on introduction to many different natural fibers  and a discussion of their individual characteristics which may be used to enhance a final cloth. A few spindles and wool will be available if you would like to try out what you have learned .  Inexpensive spinning and weaving tools that are easy to make will be discussed so you can get spinning and weaving right away.  Though the emphasis in this hour and a half is on spinning for weaving, discussion will also include spinning for knitting, crocheting, lacemaking, embroidery, and sewing. Come and join us and learn to turn your cotton fields, pet hair, sheep wool, and other fabulous fibers into unique cloth that your friends will admire.Â
Her speaker bio: Continue reading
This is why there is an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in the U.S.: food deliberately engineered to make people eat until they get fat. Georgia is not quite one of the fattest states, but Lowndes County is one of the fattest counties. There is something we can do, even while Big Food continues to act like Big Tobacco.
Michael Moss wrote for NYTimes 20 February 2013, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food,
On the evening of April 8, 1999, a long line of Town Cars and taxis pulled up to the Minneapolis headquarters of Pillsbury and discharged 11 men who controlled America’s largest food companies. Nestlé was in attendance, as were Kraft and Nabisco, General Mills and Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Mars. Rivals any other day, the C.E.O.’s and company presidents had come together for a rare, private meeting. On the agenda was one item: the emerging obesity epidemic and how to deal with it. While the atmosphere was cordial, the men assembled were hardly friends. Their stature was defined by their skill in fighting one another for what they called “stomach share” — the amount of digestive space that any one company’s brand can grab from the competition.
James Behnke, a 55-year-old executive at Pillsbury, greeted the men as they arrived. He was anxious but also hopeful about the plan that he and a few other food-company executives had devised to engage the C.E.O.’s on America’s growing weight problem. “We were very concerned, and rightfully so, that obesity was becoming a major issue,” Behnke recalled. “People were starting to talk about sugar taxes, and there was a lot of pressure on food companies.” Getting the company chiefs in the same room to Continue reading