AASP Primary Records Program

Here are excerpts from Cal Heusser's autobiography, provided by Dr. Linda Heusser, May 13, 2002. The entire document is available from AASP. Contact Owen Davis palynolo@geo.arizona.edu

"My interest in plant science began in 1945 during WWII.... I had been a chemistry major when entering military service but the lure of plants and field work became far more attractive for study when I returned to Rutgers University after the war. In the course of completing undergraduate work, I had the good fortune to come in contact with Murray Buell, who had come from North Carolina State to the Department of Botany at Rutgers. Murray was friendly, unassuming, and accessible…."

"Murray generated my initial interest in paleoecology. I did an MS thesis having to do with the "History of an estuarine bog at Secaucus, New Jersey" (Heusser, 1949). Plant fossil macroremains, the focus of the work, traced sea-level change and progressive demise of a freshwater whitecedar bog. Although Murray had become active working with fossil pollen (Buell, 1945), I did not involve myself with palynology until later, when I went to Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon to work for a PhD…."

"Unfortunately for me, Henry Hansen, with whom I had come to study, became Dean of the Graduate School the year I arrived. Because he was busy with administrative work, I was much on my own. I would major in botany, but because my thesis was to be in palynology, there was need to minor in geology, which meant picking up necessary credits in earth science courses. I chose "Pollen Profiles from Southeastern Alaska" for a dissertation. This decision came about upon my joining the American Geographical Society's Juneau Icefield Research Project in Southeastern Alaska as plant ecologist. During 1950 and 1951, the project enabled me to collect cores for the thesis from muskegs not only about Juneau but also about Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Sitka."