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Collectors of the UNC Herbarium
Dr. Emma Lewis Lipps
(1919-1996)
The following information and photograph
of Dr. Emma Lewis Lipps was provided to the University of North
Carolina Herbarium by Beth Gibbons, Assistant to the Director
of Museum and Archives, Shorter College.
| Dr.
Emma Lewis Lipps was born in Alexandria, Virginia on February
8, 1919 and died in Rome, Georgia on July 19, 1996. Dr. Lipps
was a professor of Biology at Shorter College in Rome for more
than forty years. Previously, she graduated from Wesleyan College,
worked in the medical school in Augusta, Georgia, and taught
at Agnes Scott College. She earned her masters degree from Emory
University and her PhD from the University of Tennessee.
During her forty plus
years at Shorter College, the main body of her work came to
fruition. Her career was dedicated to ecological interests and
promoting the well being of the Earth. Many of her endeavors
in the field of ecology were visionary and have since become
part of everyday concerns about the environment. |
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One area of local interest
for Dr. Lipps and her students was the Marshall Forest, a tract
of land located in Floyd County, Georgia that had never been cleared
for cultivation. Dr. Lipps used the forest as a natural lab for
teaching biology and a great ecological resource. To quote Dr.
Lipps in reference to Marshall Forest, “it will provide
answers to questions we are not yet able to ask.” In 1979,
the National Council of State Garden Clubs honored her for 25
years of work on behalf of the Marshall Forest.
Dr. Lipps’ ecological interests are
also reflected in her geological work at Ladd’s Quarry in
Bartow County, Georgia. A report in The Smithsonian Torch of June
1968 announced the discovery on this site of perhaps the largest
Devonian fossil fauna ever unearthed in the Southeast. In fact,
Dr. Lipps and her students sent from Ladd’s Quarry enough
fossil specimens to fill several drawers in the workroom desks
of the Smithsonian.
Through the scope of her distinguished
career, Dr. Lipps sought to increase awareness of our dependency
on the Earth’s resources and to encourage our acceptance
of shared responsibility for its upkeep. With a combination of
energy, enthusiasm, perseverance, and a few eccentricities, Dr.
Lipps became a leader and legend in her field. Her students, many
of whom are themselves leaders in many fields, will carry on her
torch for generations to come.
  
Curriculum North Carolina UNC
In Ecology Botanical Garden Biology Department
University of North Carolina
Herbarium
CB# 3280, Coker Hall
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280
phone: (919) 962-6931
fax: (919) 962-6930
email: herbarium@bio.unc.edu
Last Updated: 13 October
2004
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