Plant Pathology Retired / Emeritus Faculty
J.L. Dale
Dr. James L. Dale was born in Olney, Illinois. He received his B.S. Ed. from Eastern Illinois State College in 1952, his M.S. degree from the University of Illinois in 1953, and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1956.
His graduate research assistantship was at the University of Illinois from 1952 to 1956. He then started working at the University of Arkansas as an Extension Plant Pathologist from 1956 to 1957, Assistant Professor, 1957 to 1960, and Associate Professor in 1960 until his retirement in 1988 as Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology.
His research included fungi, chemical control of plant diseases and diseases of corn and pasture grasses.
Dr. Dale belongs to the American Phytopathological Society, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and the Arkansas Academy of Science.
Honorary Society: Sigma Xi.
Joseph P. Fulton
Dr. Fulton was born in Princeton, Indiana on July 1, 1917. He grew up in Wisconsin and spent summers on his grandfather's farm in Southern Illinois. He received his A.B. from Wabash College in 1939, his M.A. from the University of Illinois in 1941, and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1947. He was a teaching assistant in Botany at the University of Illinois from 1939 to 1942 and 1946 to 1947. From 1942 to 1946 Dr. Fulton was on active military duty in the Army and was released as a 1st Lieutenant. His graduate research was done at the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Illinois. He then served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas from 1947 to 1951, Associate Professor from 1951 to 1954 and Professor from 1954 to 1959. He served as the Head of the Plant Pathology department from July 1, 1959 to July 1, 1964.
His research included fields of virology, diseases of strawberries, and diseases of vegetables while at the University of Arkansas. He was active in setting up a strawberry certification program with cooperation from the State Plant Board and Agricultural Experiment Station.
Dr. Fulton belongs to the American Phytopathological Society, the Botanical Society of America, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and the Arkansas Academy of Science.
Honorary Societies include: Sigma Xi, Alpha Zeta, Phi Sigma, and Gamma Sigma Delta Alpha Zeta, AAUP and a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Rose Gergerich
Rose Gergerich received her B.A. in Secondary Education from the University of Wisconsin. She received her M.S. in botany from the University of Wisconsin and her Ph.D. in plant pathology from Michigan State University.
Gergerich attended the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee – majoring in secondary education, then earned a M.S. degree in botany. A job as a technician in virology at the Medical College of Wisconsin sparked her interest in viruses. She seized an opportunity to attend Michigan State University to work on her Ph.D. where her interest in virology and plants formed the basis for her degree program. After graduation from Michigan State in 1981, Gergerich applied for a post doctoral position in the University of Arkansas’ Department of Plant Pathology. Howard Scott and Joe Fulton had received one of the first USDA Competitive Grants in Plant Pathology, and Gergerich joined their team. Gergerich had a great experience as a part of the team effort on this grant. Shortly thereafter, she was hired on the faculty of the Department of Plant Pathology as assistant professor.
From a research perspective, Gergerich remembers the groundbreaking work on plant virus/vector relationships that the group at Arkansas worked out over the years. In early projects, the relationships between beetles, nematodes and plant viruses were not known. The research efforts of the group led to several discoveries that helped in the understanding and management of various plant virus diseases. Gergerich also takes great satisfaction in the various applied research projects that she and her students have tackled over the years– from helping Arkansas Canna lily and rose growers with virus problems to working out the cause of blackberry decline disease, among other projects dealing with diagnosis and development of management practices for virus diseases in wheat and soybean. Gergerich has been an active and effective participant in the American Phytopathological Society since 1986, including serving as secretary of APS, councilor-at-large, and editor-in-chief of APS Press. In 2006, she was honored as a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society. She found her participation and activities with the APS staff and members of the society to be an interesting and very rewarding experience.
M.J. Goode
Dr. M. Jack Goode served as a faculty member in the Department of Plant Pathology for over 30 years starting in 1957. He enjoyed an international reputation for his research on vegetable diseases and their control through the development and release with plant breeders in Horticulture of disease-resistant cultivars of cucumbers, spinach and tomatoes.
Dr. Goode received his B.S. and M.S. from Mississippi State University and his Ph.D. from North Carolina State.
Kyung Soo Kim
Kyung Soo Kim was born in Seoul, Korea on June 6, 1933. He was raised in North Korea until he fled to South Korea during the Korean conflict in 1950. He received his B.S. degree in biology from Kyung Puk National University in Korea. At the University of Arkansas, he received his M.S. degree in zoology in 1963 and, in 1971, his Ph.D. in plant pathology. His doctoral research, under the direction of J.P. Fulton, involved the study of sub-cellular responses of systemic and hypersensitive hosts to infection of comoviruses. In the same year, he was appointed as a research associate, and became an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Arkansas in 1974. He was promoted to associate professor in 1978 and to professor in 1982. In 1993, he was appointed to the distinguished rank of university professor. He was responsible for administration of the university-wide electron microscope facility and had research and teaching responsibility in plant pathology. His research contributions are well recognized in national as well as international circles and his students can testify to his excellence in teaching.
In recognition of his distinguished contributions in science to the university community and outstanding research accomplishments achieved, Kim received the prestigious University of Arkansas Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Research in 1989. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Phytopathological Society, and a member of the American Society for Cell Biology, and Gamma Sigma Delta. He has also served as an associate editor for Virology. In addition to numerous publications in scientific journals, Kim has presented a large number of seminars and invited lectures in the United States as well as Costa Rica, England, Korea, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Guatemala, Japan, and China.
Robert D. Riggs
Robert Riggs graduated from Maynard High School and enrolled in the University of Arkansas during the fall semester of 1950 majoring in general agriculture. Riggs was heavily influenced by his first course in plant pathology, taught by Joe Fulton. After graduation, Riggs trained with Fulton during the summer, in preparation for a planned job in Panama at the Arkansas Agricultural Mission where the late Chuck Caviness, renowned soybean geneticist and professor, served early in his career. When this job did not actualize, Riggs entered graduate school at the U of A, working on a nematode problem in strawberries with Fulton and also working on white tip nematode of rice with E.M. Cralley. He received his M.S. degree in Plant Pathology in the summer of 1955 and enrolled at North Carolina State University to work on root knot nematode of tomatoes with Nash Winstead where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in May of 1958. Following completion of his Ph.D., Riggs applied for a new position created in Arkansas as a result of the discovery of soybean cyst nematode in the state during the previous year. On June 5, 1958, Riggs began his career in the Department of Plant Pathology working on this new problem and worked at the university until his retirement on June 30, 2006. Riggs expresses much sentiment about his successful career at the University of Arkansas.
Although probably best known for the definition of the soybean cyst nematode race scheme, Riggs has had many major accomplishments throughout his long and productive career. Early in his career, Riggs educated farmers on nematodes and the effects the pests could have on cotton and soybean yields, and he stressed the importance of controlling these pests with the relatively cheap and effective pesticides available at that time. At Riggs’ encouragement, the application of pesticides had a profound effect on the root knot nematode/Fusarium wilt disease complex in cotton in eastern Arkansas. Also, during the early years of his career, Riggs continued to work with Cralley and Fulton on the white tip nematode of rice and summer dwarf of strawberry, respectively. Although Riggs was not heavily involved in the erradication of these nematode diseases from the state, his assistance in the research made it possible. A pioneer in research on soybean cyst nematode race characterization, Riggs is also well known for establishing the soybean cyst nematode race scheme that is still used in breeding resistant soybean varieties. Riggs also provided insight and knowledge into the development of a new classification of soybean cyst nematode populations referred to as the HG (Heterodera glycines, the scientific name for soybean cyst nematode) type test, which is quickly replacing the race scheme in soybean breeding programs and field SCN population labeling.
H.A. Scott
B.S. (Memphis State University), M.A. (Montana State University), Ph.D. (University of California, Berkley), University Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology 1967, 1991.
George Templeton
George Earl Templeton II was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on June 27, 1931. He attended the University of Arkansas, where he received a B.S.A. in agriculture in 1953 and a M.S. in plant pathology in 1954. After completing two years of military service, he resumed his studies at the University of Wisconsin, where he completed a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology in 1958. Upon his graduation from the University of Wisconsin, he returned to the University of Arkansas as an Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology. In 1967 he attained the rank of professor, and was promoted to the rank of University Professor in 1985 and Distinguished Professor in 1991.
He conducted research in the fields of rice diseases and fungal toxins, with a special interest in the biological control of weeds with fungal plant pathogens. His achievements included developing several varieties of improved disease-resistant rice, as well as one wheat variety. With the assistance of colleagues, he isolated and identified tentoxin, found in plant pathogenic Alternaria tenuis, and also the spore germination self-inhibitor gloeosporone from Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. From his discoveries he developed the first commercial mycoherbicide, Collego, for use in rice and soybeans. In the course of his career he had over 130 publications dealing with his research. He also played a key role in the establishment of the University of Arkansas' Alternative Pest Control Center in 1989.
Templeton's expertise earned him both national and international recognition, and he served as a consultant on numberous projects. A member of the American Phytopathological Society, he established its Biological Control Committee. He also established the Southern Regional Project S-136 on Biological Control of Weeds with fungi. He further served as a member of the Biological Subcommittee of the U.S. Experiment Station Committee on Policy (ESCOP). In June 1993 he appeared before the House Committee on Agriculture's Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition as an expert on bioherbicides.
In 1971-1972, he served as president of the Arkansas Academy of Science. In 1973 he received recognition from the Weed Science Society of America for publishing the outstanding article in weed science that year. He received the John White Award for Excellence in Agricultural Research in 1974 and was named a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society in 1984. In 1996, the year he retired from full-time teaching, he received the Spitze Land-Grant University Faculty Award for Excellence. He died in Fayetteville shortly thereafter on November 24, 1996.