Grace E. “Betty” Lotowycz
Betty Lotowycz, 1988
BornMay 11, 1916
Manhattan, New York City
DiedApril 8, 2016(2016-04-08) (aged 99)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materVassar
Scientific career
Fieldsbotanist
InstitutionsPlant Fields Arboretum

(May 11, 1916 - April 8, 2016) was an American botanist.

Biography

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Grace E. “Betty” Lotowycz (nee Ashwell) was an American botanist who .....

She received a degree in botany from Vassar College in 1938 and then joined the Experiment in International Living, a student-exchange program climbing in the Swiss Alps. She joined the staff of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as a curatorial assistant [1] and as an editorial assistant at Life Magazine.[2]

Lotowycz was a founding member of the Long Island Botanical Society and lifetime member of the Torrey Botanical Society. In 1962, she began working at Planting Fields Arboretum, where she established and curated the herbarium of preserved plants that currently numbers about 10,000 specimens.[2] She retired in 1984 after 22 years. [1]

Private life

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At the beginning of WWII, she learned to fly and joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots for which she received a Congressional Gold Medal at a White House ceremony in 2009. In 1946, Lotowycz married Wladimir “Bill” Lotowycz, and lived with him and their young family in Damascus, Syria, from 1947-1949 before returning to New York. [2] Lotowycz is survived by her four daughters, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.[3]

Publications

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At the age of 88, she co-authored a book, ‘‘Illustrated Field Guide to Shrubs and Woody Vines of Long Island’’ with Barbara Conolly.

Legacy

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b "Long Island Botanical Society Newsletter" (PDF).
  2. ^ a b c "Aviation pioneer Grace 'Betty' Lotowycz dies". Newsday. Retrieved 2016-06-15.
  3. ^ "Flying high: Boulder woman served as a WASP in WWII". www.dailycamera.com. Retrieved 2016-06-15.


Category:1796 births Category:1873 deaths Category:19th-century botanists Category:Columbia University faculty Category:United States Military Academy faculty Category:American botanists Category:Botanists active in North America Category:Bryologists Category:Pteridologists Category:Botanists with author abbreviations Category:American mycologists Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Torrey Botanical Society members Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences