Annette Hochberg Hervey records

Annette [Hochberg] Hervey was born in New York City on April 20, 1920. As a child she lived in the Bronx, and attended Evander Childs High School where she graduated first in her class in 1936. While at Evander Child she was placed in Dr. Leon Hervey’s biology class. Dr. Hervey encouraged Annette’s interest in biology and he became a mentor and friend. In December of 1939, they were married. After high school she was accepted into Barnard College where she majored in botany and took classes in bacteriology. She submitted her thesis The Morphological and Physiological Effects of Bacteria on Plants, in 1940 graduated Phi Beta Kappa in June 1940.

Further encouraged by Dr. Hervey, Annette entered Smith College in the Fall of 1940 for her Master’ s Degree. At Smith she held an appointment as a teaching fellow and became acquainted with Dr. Harold Rickett of the New York Botanical Garden. At Smith Annette pursued Mycological and Horticultural studies. In 1942, she was awarded her Master’s Degree submitting a thesis entitled Methods of Separating the Mycelium of Phycomyces blakesleeanus from the Liquid and Solid Media in the Assay of Thiamin (Vitamin B1).

Upon her return to New York, Annette entered Columbia University, to begin her doctoral work, where she requested permission to be Dr. Robbins graduate student. Dr William Robbins was the Director of the New York Botanical Garden and Chairman of the Department of Botany at Columbia.

While at work on her own dissertation, Annette published with Dr. Robbins, four scientific papers. Her thesis, A Survey of Basidiomycetes for Anti-bacterial Activity, was published in 1947 in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. She was appointed Research Associate in 1947 and three years later she transferred to the Rockefeller fund at Columbia University. In 1961 she was promoted to Senior Research Associate.

When Dr. Robbins left the Garden in 1961 to become the Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation’s International Science Activities division, Rockefeller University had offered him Laboratory facilities. Annette received permission from Dr. Steere, Director of the Garden at the time, to spend a day or two a week at Rockefeller University, to continue the research initiated by Dr. Robbins at the Garden. Dr. Hervey was a member of the adjunct faculty of Rockefeller University (1979). The partnership proved beneficial to both institutions.

Her interests encompassed studies of antibiotic substances from basidiomycetous fungi, studies of nutritional and development characteristics of certain fungi and higher plants, and studies with plant tissue culture and orchids. She also studied and evaluated the use of mineral oil for preserving the Garden’s stock culture collection of microorganisims.

During her 37 years at the NYBG, Dr. Hervey’s involvement included teaching adult education courses, lecturing to garden clubs, science clubs and college biology students. In 1971 she become the Coordinator of Special Programs in the Education department.

She belonged to the AAAS (Fellow), AIBS, The Mycological Society of American, The Society of Protozoology, The American Society of Microbiology, the Society for Industrial Microbiology, the Tissue Culture Association. She was a life long member of Torrey Botanical Club and their corresponding secretary for 20 year. She was elected President of the club in 1978 and served in 1979.

On December 9th, 1979, Dr. Annette Hervey was admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, where she died on January 28th, 1980.