Rhoda Love

A.genuine north-westerner, born and educated in Seattle, Rhoda Love claims she discovered her botanical calling in 1951 during a University of Washington botany class with C.L. Hitchcock. “Hitchy was inspiring. I had a superb education at Washington and will always be grateful to the many fine professors who taught me there,” she says.

After graduation and a stint as junior high school teacher, Rhoda returned to UW to obtain her MS in botany, and she continued teaching in Seattle and then briefly in California. She and husband Glen moved to Eugene 1965 where she began 30 years of teaching at Lane Community College. Her enthusiasm led many of her former students to pursue botany careers. One recently wrote, “Rhoda expected the best from her students and,

knowing that, they usually gave her their best.” . Rhoda returned to graduate school at the University of Oregon,

where she completed her PhD in 1980, under the direction of plant ecologist Stan Cook. “As the child of relatively unschooled parents, I consider my education to be the most important factor in my life,” she tells us.

Rhoda has long been active in the Native Plant Society of Oregon. She worked vigorously for the passage of the Oregon Endangered Species Act of 1987. She was appointed by three governors to terms on the Oregon Natural Heritage Advisory Council, and serves as an advisor to the Oregon Department of Agriculture Rare Plant Program.

When Rhoda learned that a new flora of Oregon was to be launched at OSU she couldn’t resist becoming part of the project, and was at once welcomed by members of the Oregon Flora team. She was invited to become a checklist project leader and is writing treatments of the pome-fruited Rosaceae for the checklist. She also serves as editor of the Oregon Flora Newsletter. Rhoda has also been providing common names for all taxa in the Oregon checklist. “My work on the Flora is now one of the most exciting and satisfying activities in my life,” she says. Another, she hastens to add, is watching her children mature and prosper, and visiting her two grandsons, who live in Houston, Texas.

– Charlene Simpson, Emerald Chapter