Earl Lemley Core
Earl Lemley Core (January 20, 1902 – December 8, 1984) was a botanist and botanical educator, researcher, and author as well as a local West Virginia historian. He was founder of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Club and editor of its journal, "Castanea", for thirty-five years. He was a teacher and professor at West Virginia University (WVU) from 1928 to 1972. He served for four years on the Morgantown City Council, and served as mayor of Morgantown for two years. The Earl L. Core Arboretum at WVU was named in his honor in 1967. Biography. Youth and education . Core was born on January 20, 1902, at Core, West Virginia, the son of Harry Michael and Clara Edna ("née" Lemley) Core. He graduated from Morgantown High School and taught in rural schools from 1920 to 1923. He then attended WVU, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1926 and a Master of Arts in 1928. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1936 from Columbia University. His dissertation was on the systematics of the sedge genus "Scleria". Career. Core became an instructor at WVU in 1928 and remained on the faculty for over 44 years. He progressed to assistant  professor in 1934, associate professor in 1941, professor in 1942, and professor emeritus in 1972. Core was chairman of the Biology Department from 1948 to 1966. He served as curator of the university herbarium from 1934 until his retirement in 1972. In addition, he served as a member of the summer faculty at Ohio State University between 1939 and 1941, and of Concord College in 1961. Core was named botanist for the Colombia Cinchona Mission, Bogota, Colombia, from 1943 to 1945 during which assignment he explored in the Andes Mountains in search of wartime sources of quinine from the "Cinchona  tree. Author. In the course of his career, Core authored numerous technical articles, several books, and hundreds of newspaper articles. Two notable textbooks that became standards were General Biology", co-authored by Core, P.D. Strausbaugh, and B.R. Weimer, and "A New Manual for the Biology Laboratory", co-authored with Weimer. His botanical texts were "The Flora of West Virginia", a four volume series written with Strausbaugh, "Flora of the Erie Islands", "Spring Wild Flowers", "Plant Taxonomy", and "Vegetation of West Virginia". He also prepared a collection of weekly botanical writings for the "Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette" entitled "The Wondrous Year . In 1937, Core wrote The Chronicles of Core", a history of his home community. In 1960 he published "Morgantown Disciples", a history of the First Christian Church of Morgantown, West Virginia. Late in life he embarked upon an extensive five-volume history of Monongalia County, West Virginia (1974–84), completing the last volume shortly before his death. This material had been published over a period of 12 years in a weekly column of the Morgantown "Dominion Post" newspaper.