Ralph Mott: Honoring a Classmate - Episode 80

This story is about Dr. Ralph Mott, from North Carolina State University, who became an internationally known botanist, not only for improving the quality and disease resistance of the Loblolly Pine, but for becoming the first to clone that species of tree.

And for me, this story is personal.  That’s because Ralph and I go back a long way, having known each other since fifth grade – and graduating from high school together in 1956.  After college we followed divergent career paths, staying in touch at class reunions.  I visited Ralph and his wife, Beverly, another classmate, once a year for the last three years of Ralph’s life, my final visit was in 2014, just a few months before he passed away from a disease that few have heard of.

So . . . join me, please, as I pay tribute to Ralph Mott, an outstanding scientist and long-time friend, with his story from Volume 3 of Stories from History’s Dust Bin . . .