George Baker Cummins

George Baker Cummins (August 29, 1904 – March 30, 2007) was a notable American mycologist and was considered an authority on the rust fungi. At his death he was the last surviving charter member of the Mycological Society of America.

Career

George Baker Cummins was affectionately known as "Mr. Rust" and he was recognized throughout the world as the authority on the rust fungi, the Puccinales, which are the largest order of disease-causing organisms of plants. Cummins professional specialty for almost his entire career was the taxonomy, biology and geographic distribution of the rust fungi. His investigations of the rusts took him to the Philippines, New Guinea, continental China, the Himalaya, central and western Africa, and North and South America.

Cummins began his mycological career at the age of 23 as a graduate student at the University of Michigan in 1927, meaning he was a mycologist for 80 years. He published his first journal paper in 1930 at the age of 26 and his last publication was the Illustrated Genera of Rust Fungi in 2003 at the age of 99. The collection is especially rich in grasses, partly due to the interest of Cummins in collecting hosts for grass rusts. Cummins named over 600 new taxa or combinations in his 33-year career as curator. He was appointed professor in 1947 and was head of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology from 1966 to 1970, when he retired.

Cummins was active in teaching and instructed courses in general plant sciences and mycology. In collaboration with other departmental faculty he authored a textbook and laboratory manuals in plant sciences. He also served as major professor for graduate students in master's and doctoral programs. His students included J. W. Baxter, Y. Hiratsuka and J. F. Hennen. After retirement from Purdue Cummins moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he was appointed visiting research professor by the Department of Plant Pathology of the University of Arizona and was provided working facilities and microscopic equipment in the mycological herbarium. For the next 20 years he was a valued and highly productive faculty member.

Memberships and awards

Cummins held all of the offices of the Mycological Society of America; secretary treasurer (1942–1944), vice president (1945), president (1946) and councilor (1947–1948). He was also active in the American Phytopathological Society of America, the Mycological Society of Mexico, the Torrey Botanical Club, American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Southwestern Association of Naturalists, the Indiana Academy of Science, and the International Association for Plant Taxonomy. He was made a Life Member of the Mycological Society of America in 1967 and was the longest surviving charter member. His achievements were recognized by Montana State University (where he received a B.S. degree) when they conferred upon him an Honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1963. He became an Emeritus Professor at Purdue in 1971 and in recognition as the foremost authority on the rust fungi, Purdue University awarded him an honorary doctoral degree in 1981. Several other universities also awarded him honorary degrees including the Banco Nacional of Mexico which named him "Mencion honorifica" in 1982.

Contributions and literary works Outstanding contributions by Cummins include a study of the phylogenetic significance of the pores in rust urediniospores, a monograph of the genus Prospodium, an illustrated manual of rust genera, and studies of major groups of grass rusts, some cooperatively with H. C. Greene and J. F. Hennen (Baxter, 1962).

During his tenure at Purdue, and at the University of Arizona since his retirement, he published 120 refereed papers and 9 books. The books published include Rust Fungi on Legumes and Composites in North America (1978), The Rust Fungi of Cereals, Grasses and Bamboos (1971), three books on rust fungi of Mexico with Hector M. Gallegos and three editions of the Illustrated Genera of Rust Fungi with Yasuyuki Hiratsuka.

Cummins has been noted as the best softball pitcher in the Purdue University School of Agriculture "... The abbreviation of Purdue University Retirees (PUR) is antedated by some years by PUR, the official international designation for the Arthur. The two PUR's have something in common. The PUR (Arthur Herbarium) is a repository of about 80,000 specimens, many quite old. Purdue University Retirees probably do not number so many, but the rest of the comparison has some validity. And I am in a position to know."

Dr. George Baker Cummins died on March 30, 2007, at the age of 102. "Dr. George B. Cummins is a scholar, a gentlemen, and a scientist of international fame. His contributions to Purdue University, Indiana, the United States, and the world have been enormous." - Dr. Markus Scholler (former curator of the Arthur Fungarium)

Mildred died 22 August 2008 at the age of 101. She and Cummins are survived by son Richard, daughter Elaine Cummins Yankula, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, including a set of triplets.