COLUMBUS — A dedication of the Ronald L. Stuckey Herbarium Archives was held at the Ohio State University Herbarium on June 14.
Stuckey was born in Bucyrus on Jan. 9, 1938. He was the son of Guy and Leora (Shuey) Stuckey and grew up on a farm on Albaugh Road, Lykens Township. Ron graduated from Lykens High School in 1956 and earned his B.S. in Biology from Heidelberg College in 1960. He went on to earn a Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Michigan. From 1965 to 1991, Dr. Stuckey served as Professor of Botany at The Ohio State University and taught courses in Local Flora, Aquatic Flowering Plants and Plant Nomenclature. He is an internationally recognized authority on the identification and geographical distribution of aquatic and wetland plants in North America.
Stuckey was director of the OSU Herbarium from 1967 to 1976, and through his interest in historical botany in Ohio, he preserved a large amount of archival related material. According to Prof. John V. Freudenstein, director of the OSU Herbarium, and Prof. Emeritus Tod F. Stuessy, “The reason we have such a wealth of available information is due to the foresight and industry of Pro. Emer. Ronald L. Stuckey and there would be no archive to preserve, curate, or develop into the future without his efforts.”
The objective of the Ronald L. Stuckey Herbarium Archives is to make information, beginning with the founding of the Herbarium in 1891, available to interested persons for historical or biographical purpose
