Herbert Hice Whetzel

Herbert Hice Whetzel (September 5, 1877 – November 30, 1944) was an American plant pathologist and mycologist. As a professor of plant pathology, he led the first department of plant pathology at an American university and founded the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium (CUP).

Background and education H. H. Whetzel was born near Avilla, Indiana, where he spent his boyhood on the family farm. A nature lover and collector from an early age, he taught school for two years after graduating high school, then earned a bachelor's degree at Wabash College. After graduating from Wabash College in 1902, he attended graduate school at Cornell University, where he studied under the prominent mycologist George F. Atkinson. In 1904 he married Lucy E. Baker. They had two children, Joseph and Gertrude; Lucy died in 1912. In 1914 he married Lucy's sister Bertha A. Baker, and they raised the children together in Ithaca, New York. In 1906, Whetzel was appointed Assistant Professor of Botany, and in 1907, he became the Head Professor of the newly created Department of Plant Pathology. His students included M. F. Barrus and Charles Chupp, who both went on to Teach at Cornell and who shared Whetzel's conviction of the importance of Extension work where his fungus collections are stored. He was a pioneer in documenting the Fungi of Puerto Rico (1916) and Bermuda (1920–1921). At the end of his life he issued the exsiccata like series Bermuda Fungi, specimens no. 101 to no. 200 distributed by J. M. Waterston after his death.

Whetzel died in Ithaca, New York, at the age of 67.