Catherine Keever

Catherine Keever (September 8, 1908 - May 9, 2003) was an educator and ecologist focused on ecological succession and highland region ecology. Keever proved that moss is the first plant to grow on bald rock, rather than lichens.

Early life Keever was born September 8, 1908, in Iredell County, North Carolina to John C. Keever, a Methodist preacher, and Blanche Moore Keever. Her brother, Homer Keever, was the historian of Irdell County, NC. During her childhood, Keever moved throughout Western North Carolina within the Methodist Conference as her father took on various churches. She attended Davenport College in Lenoir, North Carolina, for two years before transferring to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She completed her bachelor's degree, master's degree, and Ph.D. at Duke majoring in botany with minor studies in zoology. Throughout her studies, Keever taught at public high schools in Linwood, Lowell, and Burlington, North Carolina. During her education, Keever's research focused on plant growth and soil building process in highland areas. Dr. Elsie Quarterman was one of Keever's classmates at Duke and they remained friends and consistent collaborators throughout their lives. They both studied under HJ Oosting at Duke and graduated within their PhDs in 1949.

Career During her time at Duke, Keever extensively studied Rocky Face Mountain in Hiddenite, NC. Through her studies, she found proof that moss is the first plant to grow on bald rock and is the plant element that leads to soil attraction, rather than lichens, which was the scientific opinion at the time. Upon completing her education, Catherine Keever taught for two years at Duke before moving to Winthrop College in South Carolina where she taught biology. She later moved on to the University of Georgia, where she taught botany until 1955. That same year she would move to Millersville University in Pennsylvania to teach botany and ecology. She would remain there until her retirement in 1974. During the 1970s, Keever and Dr. Elsie Quarterman took part in the National Natural Landmark inventories. During the inventory they identified two tracts of high-quality oak-hickory forest within Montgomery Bell State Park in Dickson County, Tennessee, which provides the best-known example of representative oak-hickory forest ecosystems on the Western Highland Rim in Tennessee. The presence of southern red oak and post oak in the dominant soil layer provide floristic and ecological affinities not found elsewhere in the upland forest. This area is now referred to as a Class II Natural-Scientific State Natural Area. Millersville University offers funds through a Keever Biology Research Training Fund established through a donation from Dr. Keever. The award is used to train students in methods and values of scientific research and is used to support undergraduate biology majors. Keever also provided a grant to Thomas Ellsworth Hemmerly for printing a full color field guide to Appalachian Wildflowers.

Publications "Causes of Succession on Old Fields of the Piedmont, North Carolina" from Ecological Monographs, 1950 "Present Composition of Some Strands of the Former Oak-Chestnut Forest in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains" from Ecology, 1953 Moving on: a way of Life from Brady Printing Company, Statesville, NC