The University of North Carolina Herbarium
(NCU) has few specimens collected by H. N. Moldenke, but many
specimens that were annotated by him.
Alma Lance Ericson Moldenke (1908 - 1997) was his wife and botanical
partner.
Anonymous (1996) Obituaries: Harold Norman Moldenke 1909-1996.
Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 123(3): 258.
Dr. Harold Moldenke, 84, well-known plant systematist and journal
editor, and member of the Torrey Botanical Club all his adult
life (since 1929), died January 7, 1996 in Corvallis, Oregon,
where he had lived since 1985. He was born in Watchung, NJ, in
1909. His undergraduate degree was from Susquehanna Uiversity,
PA, in 1929, and his Ph.D. in taxonomic botany was from Columbia
University in 1934. In 1942 he married his partner in life and
in botanical activity, Alma Lance Ericson.
Dr. Moldenke founded the botanical journal
Phytologia in 1933, and his wife was later to
join him as co-editor of that journal. Dr. Moldenke and Alma Moldenke
published the books Plants of the Bible and American
Wild Flowers, the latter on e of the first books to have
color photographs of wildflowers. After a tripartite career that
included a time as a curator at the New York Botanical Garden,
a time as director of the Trailside Nature and Science Center
in Mountainside, NJ, and a time as a professor of Biology at William
Patterson State College, Dr. Moldenke retired in 1972. However
he hardly diminished his activity in plant systematics, conservation,
and editorial work until very late in life when illness forced
him to limit his acivities. He and Alma Moldenke continued to
edit Phytologia until 1989, when a new editor
succeeded them. Alma Moldenke continues as an active member of
the Torrey Botanical Club after the death of her husband, a Life
Member of the Club.
