ROGERS McVAUGH, Curator of Vascular Plants in the Herbarium and Harley Harris Bartlett Professor of Botany, retired from active faculty status on June 30, 1979.

A native of New York, Dr. McVaugh was an undergraduate student at Swarthmore College and did his graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the Ph.D. degree in 1935. After appointments to the Botany faculty of the University of Georgia and later in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Division of Plant Exploration and Introduction, Dr. McVaugh came to The University of Michigan in 1946 as Curator in the Herbarium and Associate Professor of Botany. He was promoted to Professor in 1951 and served as Director of the Herbarium from 1972 to 1975. His Distinguished College Professorship was conferred in 1974.

Through his research and publications in vascular-plant taxonomy, Dr. McVaugh has become a world-recognized authority on the systematics of the flowering-plant families Rosaceae, Myrtaceae, and Campanulaceae. His expert knowledge of plants goes far beyond these groups, however, and in recent years his major work has been toward a manual of the entire vascular-plant flora of southwestern Mexico. An enthusiastic plant explorer, Dr. McVaugh has collected specimens in many parts of Mexico, some accessible only with difficulty. He thus has followed in the path of earlier explorers in the Americas a botanical historian, he has written extensively. Dr. McVaugh's collections have revealed numerous previously unknown species and have now been distributed to herbaria throughout the world where they are an important resource for studies on Mexican plants.

In connection with his research Dr. McVaugh has developed the collection of Mexican plants in the University of Michigan Herbarium into one without equal outside of Mexico itself. A meticulous curator, he has made the Herbarium's entire vascular-plant collection a model of curatorial excellence. Through his work on national and international committees gathering information on herbaria and their needs, he has been instrumental in promoting the recognition and use of herbaria as major resources for research and information on plants-and, most importantly, in increasing governmental financial support for maintenance and improvement of herbarium collections and for herbarium-connected research itself.

Dr. McVaugh has contributed significantly to the development of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, has served several botanical periodicals as editor or editorial board member, and has trained many graduate students in plant systematics, in the field, classroom, and herbarium. To all of his pursuits he brings a formidable scholarship lightened by humaneness, wit, and joie de vivre Dr. McVaugh's honors have included the presidencies of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists and the International Association for Plant Taxonomy. He has been awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Botanical Society of America and a gold medal by the Botanical Society of Mexico, each being the highest honor bestowed by the respective society.

The Regents now salute this eminent botanist by naming him Curator Emeritus of Vascular Plants and Professor Emeritus of Botany.