Comments delivered at the ceremony inducting Charles Bessey into the Nebraska Hall of Fame, held June 26, 2009, at the Nebraska State Capitol:

John Janovy, Jr.

Thank you; it’s an honor to be involved in this event. My impression from watching the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission work over the past couple of years is that nominees are truly remarkable people who have done equally remarkable things, typically with national or international impact, while bringing major recognition to the State of Nebraska. Charles Bessey certainly belongs in that category. His contributions to the science of botany are legendary, but his contributions to education, to our sense of how to develop human resources, and as a model for a scientist’s engagement in public service are equally significant.

For any biology teacher, a field trip into the Bessey archives in UNL’s Love Library is an adventure filled with wonder and amazement. We find page after page of correspondence, ranging from the deeply arcane taxonomic and nomenclatural issues familiar to all organismic biologists, to something you might expect in the Internet age: “Dear Sir: Will you kindly send me any reports, or information in any way, in relation to Industrial Education in your state. Have you any agricultural or other industrial schools? If so where located? Please give name of an officer of each with whom I can correspond.” This one is not an unpunctuated e-mail from a high school student with a paper due next week, but a beautifully written one from a F_____ J_____, MD. We don’t know whether Bessey actually answered this guy, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that he did, providing all the information requested. Nor would I be surprised to discover that Bessey had answered a hundred, or several hundred, similar letters, again providing all the requested information.

None of the archival photographs of Charles E. Bessey show him smiling. If these pictures were all the evidence we could use to discover why this person became a towering figure in early 20^th Century American science, we would conclude that he was a man without humor, focused to an almost inhuman degree on his work, always dressed impeccably in coat and tie—exactly the kind of person you’d avoid at a cocktail party. But the top of his desk is a pleasant warning for anyone about to delve into Charles Bessey’s correspondence: papers and books are stacked in amazing disarray, and to equally amazing heights, rather like they’d been delivered from a modern day dumpster, the one labeled “recycled office paper.”

And buried in that mess is an exceptionally revealing one from the USDA, Commissioner of Agriculture, dated January 5, 1885, shortly after Bessey’s arrival in Nebraska: “I have the pleasure of informing you that in accordance with your request our Botanical division has prepared for the Herbarium of your Institution a box of dried plants, consisting of over 2000 species, . . . The box, weighing probably over 100 pounds, will be forwarded by Express.” In today’s scientific climate, there are not many people who would even know what to do with a box of 2000 plant species, much less ask for them. Yet it can be argued, and argued successfully, that botanical knowledge, so heavily dependent on tangible evidence like that box of specimens, collected over long periods of time, identified accurately, and named properly, allows us to answer that all important question: what impact do humans have on the land they occupy.

Finally, as a biology teacher, I can assure you that to open one of Bessey’s teaching notebooks is to feel like you’re taking a seat in his classroom, a feeling that is enhanced greatly by David Wedin’s material, submitted to the Hall of Fame Commission, in which he gives Raymond Pool’s memory of Bessey as a performer: a heavy, clear voice, quick sketches on the blackboard, everyday language, and a personality described as “quaint paternal cordiality.” Bessey’s notes to himself (punctuation exactly as in the notebooks) are completely consistent with this description:

“It must be science”

“Purpose of Botany in the high school is to give some idea of a biological science, including the methods, laboratory work, and investigation”

“needs a proper selection of facts, not all are equally important”

“do not avoid agricultural plants, yet do not avoid wild plants, always use the best illustration”

“let the science dominate, not the economic plants”

“what’s the value of field trips for the students?”

“acquaintance with local flora”

“good training”

“makes a good vacation”

“good for health”

“long trips are best”

“high schoolers should go to parks, some go to prairies”

“use house plants, use cultivated plants, use wild plants, but not indiscriminately”

This inductee is a gentleman who did a staggering amount of labor, all of it a labor of love, thought constantly about how to actually do the business of teaching science at all levels, did not shy away from major public responsibilities, and was equally at ease with high school students and high level government officials. Any encounter with Charles Bessey must have been a dignified and educational one for all concerned, and I truly believe that is also the case for those of us here today. His scholarly record, his approach to intellectual endeavor, and his sense of public responsibility are all still valid models for the development of human resources in general, for the State of Nebraska, and for our nation.