Pascal Pompey Pirone

Pascal "Pat" Pompey Pirone (October 7, 1907 Mount Vernon, New York – January 11, 2003, Lexington, Kentucky) was a botanist, plant pathologist, urban horticulturalist, science communicator, and author.

Biography He grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. After graduating from A. B. Davis High School (now Mount Vernon High School), he matriculated in 1925 at Cornell University. There he was a member of the 1927 intercollegiate championship fencing team and the captain of the fencing team in his graduation year of 1929.

In 1933 he graduated from Cornell University with a Ph.D. in plant pathology. (Macrosporium carotae is a synonym for Alternaria carotae.) From 1933 to 1934 he worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the Dutch elm disease eradication program. He was from 1934 to 1938 an assistant professor of plant pathology at Cornell University and from 1938 to 1947 an associate professor at Rutgers University. From 1947 until his retirement in 1974, he was a horticulturist and plant pathologist in charge of disease and insect control at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). He became the NYBG's Director of Education and taught adult education courses there. He was a frequent guest on radio programs such as The Garden Hot Line. )

In the early years of his NYBG employment, Pirone conducted tests of pesticides to eradicate the Botryosphaeria ribis canker disease of London planes in New York City.

He discovered several species of fungi and bacteria harmful to trees, lectured widely, and wrote hundreds of scientific and popular articles on plant diseases and pests, gardening, and plant care. He was the author of four books, two of which, Diseases and Pests of Ornamental Plants and Tree Maintenance, were the leading sources of information on those topics for several decades. Albert Parella, known as the "Dahlia King of the Bronx", was a friend of the Pirone family and gave the names "Dr. P. P. Pirone" and "Loretta Pirone" to two varieties of dahlia.

with Bernard Ogilvie Dodge and Harold William Rickett: 4th edition 1970 by Pirone and Dodge; 5th edition 1978 by Pirone. with Michael Rapuano and Brooks E. Wigginton: