Herman F. Becker papers

Herman F. Becker (1907-1985) was a reknown paleobotanist whose specialty was the Tertiary paleobotany of southwest Montana. He was employed by the NYBG from 1958 to 1974 and served as Curator of Paleobotany from 1965.

Born in Dusseldorf, Dr. Becker studied horticulture at the Berlin Botanical Gardens and emigrated to the United States in 1930. He was initially employed as a horticultural assistant and eventually became Superintendant of the Conservatory for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He attended Brooklyn College from 1939 to 1947 when he received his BA. He went on to study botany at Columbia University and received his MA in 1952. He then went to the University of Michigan to study paleobotany with Chester Arnold and received his PhD in 1956.

From 1947 to 1968, Dr. Becker made a total of ten summer expeditions to the Ruby River basin of southwestern Montana. These shale deposits provided him with the research material he needed to complete his dissertation and he continued to write extensively about the deposits of this area. He also was known for his work in clarifying the structure of the controversial Sanmiguelia from the Triassic deposits of Colorado.

Dr. Becker received many honors during his lifetime. He was a member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Cactus and Succulent Society of America and the New York Academy of Sciences. He served as a fellow of the Geological Society of America and as president and vice-president of the Torrey Botanical Club. In 1977 he received a Distinguished Service Award from the Botanical Society of America. In 1981 he received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Brooklyn College Alumni Association and in 1985 a symposium was held in his honor entitled “Evolution of the Modern Vegetation of the Northern Rocky Mountains. The symposium was jointly held by the Botanical Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.