IN MEMORIAM
RICHARD C. STARR
Dr. Richard C. Starr came to the
University of Texas in 1976 as Professor of Botany. He remained
an active scholar and teacher in this same department until his
untimely death on February 3, 1998.
Richard Cawthon Starr was born in Greensboro,
Georgia on August 24, 1924. He received a B.S. degree from Georgia
Teacher's College, then a M.A. degree from George Peabody College
in Nashville, Tennessee. He enrolled in the graduate program of the
Botany Department at Vanderbilt University in 1947, where he began
a lifelong friendship with his Ph.D. mentor, Professor Harold C.
Bold. There he was introduced to the world of algae, developing a
keen interest especially in the green algae that reside on soil and
in bodies of freshwater. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for
1950-51, which he used to study at Cambridge University, U.K. There
he learned algal laboratory culture technique under Prof. E. G. Pringsheim
and became familiar with the Cambridge Collection, then the largest
assemblage of living algae in the world.
Dr. Starr accepted a faculty position at Indiana
University in 1952, where he rose through the ranks to Professor
of Botany. There he developed an international reputation as an authority
on the biology of unicellular green algae. His research interests
gradually shifted to more complex green algae, especially Volvox and
related colonial forms. He described developmental features and characterized
sexual differentiation in these algae. Most importantly, he discovered
the first sexual pheromone in green plants. This seminal work on
algal development and differentiation led to various honors, including
his election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1976. He
accepted various editorial and executive responsibilities in the
algae research community, serving as president of the Phycological
Society of America and as executive officer in the International
Phycological Society. He also actively participated in the broader
botanical community, serving as president of the Botanical Society
of America.
Shortly after beginning his career at Indiana
University, Dr. Starr began to accumulate a collection of living
algae in his research laboratory. At first it consisted primarily
of algal strains his students and associates described and studied
in the course of their research. The Indiana University Culture Collection
(IUCC) was formally named and greatly expanded by his acquisition
of hundreds of cultures from the Cambridge Collection. Dr. Starr
obtained short-term support for the Collection from the Eli Lilly
Corporation, followed by continuous funding from the National Science
Foundation.
When Professor Starr moved to the Botany Department
at U.T. Austin in 1976, he brought along his 2,000 strains of algae.
Professor Bold had moved to the Botany Department from Vanderbilt
some years earlier, and was instrumental in recruiting Professor
Starr. The offices and laboratory space of Professors Bold and Starr
were in close proximity, thus synergistically energizing the work
of the former mentor and student.
Professor Starr's early years at U.T. Austin
were among the most productive in his career. By then he had begun
a collaboration with Professor Lothar Jaenicke, a chemist at the
University of Cologne, Germany. During the late 1970s Professor Starr
perfected methods to accumulate and concentrate the vanishingly small
amounts of sex attractant produced by Volvox, while
Professor Jaenicke purified and fully characterized the attractant
compound chemically. This pioneering collaboration has guided subsequent
work by others in understanding and characterizing sexual communication
in algae. Dr. Starr continued his research on freshwater green algae
at U.T. Austin right up until his death. His joy in his research
was evident, and he could often be found in his culture room in the
Biological Laboratories Building at 6:30 a.m., performing Volvox mating
experiments while whistling along with a classical musical composition
playing on the radio. In addition to his international recognition
among fellow botanists and phycologists, Professor Starr's research
accomplishments were widely recognized across Texas and at U.T. Austin.
The Texas Academy of Sciences recognized him as Distinguished Texas
Scientist. He was named the Ashbel Smith Professor of Botany shortly
after arriving at U.T. Austin, to which was later added the Harold
C. and Mary D. Bold Centennial Professor of Cryptogamic Botany (Phycology).
These titles he held until his death.
Dr. Starr's algae collection was renamed the
UTEX Culture Collection of Algae after its relocation to U.T. Austin.
UTEX continued to expand under his direction, and is now generally
recognized as the largest assembly of living algae in the world.
During his Directorship of UTEX, Professor Starr sent thousands of
algal cultures worldwide to be used for research and teaching. He
also hosted visitors from around the world who wanted to study the
algae in the UTEX Collection or collaborate with him in research.
Richard Starr was widely known among undergraduate
students as an excellent teacher. Even medically-oriented students
frequently enrolled in his phycology course, which often was filled
to the capacity of the room. He was an enthusiastic botanist, and
always enjoyed using cryptogamic plants in his teaching and leisure
study. His general botany course was also very popular and he developed
friendships with some students that lasted for decades. His concern
for undergraduate students was documented by his active service for
many years as undergraduate advisor to botany majors. Although preferring
few graduate students at any one time, in order to allow time for
his own research, Professor Starr trained over 30 graduate students
at Indiana University and at U.T. Austin, several of whom have themselves
developed international reputations in phycology.
Professor Starr cast a long shadow in the
Department of Botany at U.T. Austin. His absence is sorely felt by
his many friends, colleagues, and students.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin,
Secretary
The General Faculty
This Memorial Resolution was prepared by a special committee consisting of Professors
Jerry J. Brand (Chair), John W. La Claire, and Beryl B. Simpson
