A biography and obituary of Alfred Traverse (1925–2015)

1. Introduction

Professor Alfred (‘Al’) Traverse passed away following a long illness at 90 years of age on September 15^th 2015 at Juniper Village, State College, Pennsylvania, USA. With his death, the twin sciences of palaeobotany and palynology have lost one of their most influential and productive of practitioners and teachers. He had a stellar student career, was a coal petrologist, an industrial palynologist and held parallel positions in the Episcopal (Anglican) church. However he is principally defined by his 30-year tenure as a professor at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) from 1966 to his full retirement in 1996. Al was an incredibly diverse scientist; the topics of his numerous research papers are highly eclectic. He demonstrated a truly polymathic approach to palaeobotany and palynology. Most notably, he published two editions of the only single-author textbook ever published in English on pre-Quaternary palynology. This short article seeks to celebrate and document Al's fascinating, fulfilling, long and productive life, hence it is designated as both a biography and an obituary. The authors have drawn on their collective memories, Al's publications, online information and other obituaries such as Anonymous (2015) and Rich & Strother (2015).

Al and Betty Traverse in the Botanischer Garten, Berlin, Germany in August 1987.

2. Childhood and schooling (1925–1943)

Alfred Traverse was born on the 7^th of September (Labor Day) 1925 at St. James Anglican rectory in Port Hill, Prince Edward Island, Canada. He was always known as Al to everyone, and was the son of the Reverend A. Freeman Traverse, a priest in the Episcopal church. His mother was Pearle Akerley Traverse, who was a dietician and schoolteacher. In 1926 the Traverse family moved to Lucknow in southern Ontario, and then to Allegan, Michigan, USA in 1928. Al never moved back to Canada, and he became a naturalised United States citizen in 1934. He went to primary and secondary public schools in St. Joseph, Michigan, graduating from high school in 1943 as the valedictorian (highest-ranking student) of his class. Al was clearly an outstanding student; he was editor of the school newspaper, president of the local chapter of the National Honor Society and he won the Bausch and Lomb Science Award.

3. Al Traverse the university student (1943–1951)

Al's stellar school record was rewarded with a freshman scholarship at Harvard University, commencing in June 1943. He majored in biology, and graduated with a bachelor's degree magna cum laude (with great honour) in 1946. Al was elected to Phi Beta Kappa (the oldest academic society in the USA). His bachelor's honours thesis, directed by Professor Paul C. Mangelsdorf, concerned a problem in corn genetics. It was clear at the outset that Al exhibited a definite penchant for botany. Al was as active at university as he had been at school; he sat on several student council committees and was a member of the Speakers Club.

Upon graduation, Al won a Lady Julia Henry Fellowship to undertake scientific research in England. These awards are given by Harvard and Yale universities to unmarried US citizens in order to allow them to undertake one year of study at either Cambridge or Oxford universities in the UK. Al spent the academic year 1946–1947 working on palaeobotany under the legendary figures of Sir Harry Godwin and Hugh Hamshaw Thomas at the School of Botany of the University of Cambridge. He was affiliated to King's College Cambridge, and was awarded a Certificate in Botany in 1947.

Al returned to Harvard in August 1947 to become a graduate student, and held an Anna C. Ames scholarship. He continued his work on palaeobotany, and also began his research in palynology. Al was awarded a Master's degree by Harvard in 1948, and elected to Sigma Xi, at the age of 23. Somewhat inevitably, Al elected to undertake research towards a PhD. Additionally, he was a dormitory proctor, freshman advisor and teaching fellow at Harvard. His supervisor, Elso S. Barghoorn, advised Al to undertake research on the palynology of the Early Miocene Brandon Lignite of Brandon, Vermont. Al was Elso Barghoorn's second PhD student. Barghoorn's first graduate student, William (‘Bill’) Spackman, was researching the fossil wood from the Brandon Lignite at around the same time (Barghoorn & Spackman 1949; 1950). Later, during the 1970s, Bruce Tiffney worked on the fruits and seeds from the Brandon Lignite (e.g. Tiffney & Barghoorn 1976; Tiffney 1994).

The field locality in Vermont was relatively remote, and Al always contended that the only travel funds he ever received from Elso Barghoorn was a $10 bus ticket to Vermont (Rich & Strother 2015). Fieldwork at the small field site was challenging; the immediate area was profoundly waterlogged, and an old gas-fired pump was needed to prevent the locality from flooding. Al was awarded his PhD by Harvard in June 1951 at the age of 26 for a dissertation entitled The pollen and spores of the Brandon Lignite: a coal in Vermont of lower Tertiary age. This thesis was the first ever in North America on pre-Quaternary palynology. Al published a seminal paper on his PhD research four years later (Traverse 1955). During June 1951, he married Elizabeth Jane (‘Betty’) Insley, who was also trained in botany, graduating from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, in June 1951. Betty and Al first met in the biology laboratories at Harvard University in 1949.

4. Government service and the oil industry (1951–1962)

The year of 1951 was truly a landmark one for Al, who was hired as a coal technologist by the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) Lignite Research Laboratory at Grand Forks, North Dakota. His mission was to work on the palynology and petrography of the Paleocene lignites of that state. Al went on to be appointed head of the Fuels Microscopy Laboratory. While at Grand Forks, Al was also Assistant Research Professor of Geology at the University of North Dakota. Paul and Martha, the eldest two of Al and Betty's children, were born in North Dakota. During his sojourn at Grand Forks, Al travelled to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the autumn of 1953, to meet Chester A. Arnold, who was one of the leading palaeobotanists of that time. One of the authors (WGC) was working with Arnold on Pennsylvanian megaspores at that time, and the three took a collecting trip to a very productive Pennsylvanian quarry near Ann Arbor. That meeting started a friendship between Al and WGC that lasted some sixty years.

In early 1956, the USBM transferred Al to their office at the Federal Center in Denver, Colorado, to become the head of the coal microscopy laboratory. However only several months after arriving in Denver, he accepted an offer from the Shell Development Company to establish a palynology laboratory at their Bellaire Research Facility in Houston, Texas, during September 1956. One of the several reasons for this change in career path was that the USBM had indicated that they would like Al to undertake sample collecting in underground mines. He was rather claustrophobic and this clearly was a significant factor in Al joining Shell. The Shell job was Al's first primary position as a palynologist, at a time when stratigraphical palynology was expanding almost exponentially in the US oil industry and elsewhere (Hoffmeister et al. 1955; Woods 1955). This new job led to Al travelling to the international headquarters of Shell in The Hague, The Netherlands, where he spent four months undertaking corporate orientation and studying their in-house palynological techniques. Upon his return, the Traverse family settled in Houston where Al worked for Shell until 1962. His research at Shell was not biostratigraphical, but comprised studying the sedimentation and transport of pollen and spores in seawater and modern sediments off the Bahamas and in the Trinity River system, Texas. The Trinity River was chosen by Al because, at that time, it was not dammed upstream so the waters should represent all the hinterland flora. Al was given a free hand to conduct this basic research as he saw fit because it was clearly deemed to be of strategic value to the company. Another major project for Al was the compilation of a modern pollen reference collection. The far-sighted approach of Shell was also adopted by the Carter Oil Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, under William S. (‘Bill’) Hoffmeister at this time (Riding & Lucas-Clark 2016). Later, Al was able to publish some of this research (e.g. Traverse & Ginsburg 1966; 1967; Traverse 1990; 1992; 1994a). He successfully applied this type of taphonomic work on pollen and spores to the study of pre-Quaternary kerogen macerals and palynomorphs, and this work culminated in Traverse (1994b). John and Celia, the two youngest children of the Traverse family, were born in Houston.

5. A man of the cloth for 30 years (1951–1981)

Much to the considerable surprise of contemporary palynologists, Al resigned from full time work with Shell in 1962 and enrolled in the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. He had been brought up as a churchgoer, and his father was an Episcopal priest. However, he also continued with Shell as a consultant between 1962 and 1965. Al graduated with a Master of Divinity degree in June 1965 as the top ranked student. He was soon ordained deacon in the Episcopal church, and became an assistant clergyman at a local branch. Al combined his ecclesiastical duties of a curate at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Austin, with being an Assistant Professor of Geology at the University of Texas for the academic year 1965–1966. It was at the University of Texas where Al first presented his introduction to palynology course.

During Al's tenure at Penn State (section 6), he held positions as priest and vicar in several Episcopal churches in Pennsylvania. One of these was being assistant rector at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Philipsburg until May 1975. He later moved to St. John's Episcopal Church in Huntingdon, from November 1975 to July 1980 where he worked as a part-time priest-in-charge.

While in Zürich in 1980–1981 (section 9), Al became an assistant priest at the Christuskirche (the Old Catholic Church), which had a close affiliation with the Anglican/Episcopal Church. Al's affiliation with the Christuskirche was his last formal connection with organised religion. Following a great deal of, no doubt, agonising self-deliberation upon his return to Penn State in 1981, Al realised that he was better categorised as a secular humanist. He felt that the Episcopal Church was too ecclesiastically liberal for his liking. For example Al deplored the fact that some bishops had been through multiple divorces; he was also against the ordination of women. Clearly his secular humanist stance made more sense to him of his present life, and he referred to himself being a ‘religion of one’. Following this watershed, he remained very positive about his religious past and did not reject it. Al made no public disavowal of his long formal association with the church. Despite this major life decision, Al continued to occasionally serve in a religious role at minor local functions.

6. The defining professional appointment: The Pennsylvania State University (1966–1996)

In June 1966, the month after being ordained as a priest, Al returned to full-time palynology, accepting the position of Associate Professor of Geology and Biology at Penn State in State College, Pennsylvania at the age of 40. Interestingly Al's great friend Bill Chaloner was the first choice for this job, but Bill decided to pursue his primarily palaeobotanical interests in the UK instead. Al was promoted to full Professor of Geology and Botany (later Palynology) in May 1970, and held this position for the rest of his career. Al was among the first ever Professors of Palynology in the world. At Penn State, Al established a modern palynology processing laboratory and taught palynology to both undergraduate and graduate students. Al was an extremely talented teacher, and his magnum opus Paleopalynology (Traverse 1988a; 2007) is largely based on the content of his courses.

Al's most long-running and successful course was the famous Geosciences/Biology 423 module. This course in basic palynology was run at Penn State from 1966 until 1996. He also taught several other courses including evolution, historical geology, advanced palynology, palaeobotany, philosophy and religion. Incidentally, Al appeared for his lectures on evolution, philosophy and religion in full clerical garb including the priest's collar! Geosciences/Biology 423 was always well-enrolled, and it was this enduring popularity which ensured its remarkable longevity. It was not simply the famous Traverse charisma which made Geosciences/Biology 423 so popular. This was not just another survey (textbook-based) course because Al adopted an inquiry-led approach which was significantly ahead of its time. After a suitable interval of classroom teaching and practicals, each student was provided with an unknown (to them) rock or sediment sample. Their task was to process, analyse and interpret the geological age to stage level. At the time at Penn State, no other undergraduate course offered the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience of what real practitioners do. Unsurprisingly, this innovative method of teaching enthused many of Al's students, and some of these went on to become professional palynologists of significant stature. When the Traverse children had grown up, Betty became Al's volunteer research assistant and sample processor, as well as demonstrating in the laboratory on the Geosciences/Biology 423 course.

Al supervised many graduate students at Penn State. His 12 PhD students were: John W. Bebout (1977); Dale C. Beeson (1992); Lynn Brant (1980); Bruce Cornet (1977); Duck Kuen Choi (1983); Robert E. Dunay (1972); Volkan Ş. Eidiger (1986); Martin B. Farley (1987); Ronald J. Litwin (1986); Douglas J. Nichols (1970); Eleanora I. Robbins (1982); and David J. Rue (1986). His eight Masters students were: Said Al-Hajri (1991); Deborah Delfel (1979); Norma G. Johnson (1984); Ronald J. Litwin (1983); Frederick K. May (1972); Andrew Schuyler (1987); Jamison B. Warg (1972); and Harvey S. Zeiss (1976). He also, of course, advised many individuals who were graduate students of other professors. Amongst these PhD students were: Arthur D. Cohen (1968); Thomas D. Davies (1980); Sarah J. Fowell (1994); Carmen Moy (1982); Fredrick J. Rich (1979) and Francis T. Ting (1967). Furthermore, Al advised many future palynologists in their undergraduate days at Penn State; these include Nan Crystal Arens, Paul K. Strother, Debra A. Willard and Pierre A. Zippi. He could be rather formal with students, and would ask them to address him as Dr or Professor Traverse, or perhaps Alfred (certainly not Al).

7. Publications

In all, Al published 120 scientific contributions between 1950 and 2015, and these are listed chronologically in the online supplementary information. The diversity of his science has already been alluded to. Al's research papers range from Lower Palaeozoic acritarchs to modern pollen and spores, together with contributions on a wide variety of topics such as archaeology, coal petrography, evolution, fungal spores, nomenclature/taxonomy/systematics, palaeobotany, palaeoecology and palynological techniques. Without doubt, his most important publication was his great textbook, Paleopalynology, of which the second edition was published nine years ago (Traverse 1988a; 2007). Al had diverse research interests, but he developed several major research themes which he explored over many years. These include the palynological study of red beds (e.g. Dunay & Traverse 1971; Litwin et al. 1991). Reddened, oxidised strata are normally very low in organic content. But Al proved that, with persistence, one can frequently find beds of non-oxidised sedimentary rock in what appears to be unpromising brown-red coloured successions. Al undertook analyses of the Franciscan Complex of California, a metamorphic unit, on the recommendation of his erstwhile colleague from his Shell days, Ken J. Hsü. The Franciscan Complex palynomorphs are very poorly-preserved so Al termed this work ‘marginal palynology’ (Traverse 1972). Other examples from the early part of his career include the palynology and petrography of coals, and the taphonomy of modern pollen grains in water bodies (e.g. Traverse 1954; Traverse & Ginsburg 1966; 1967). Al maintained a keen interest in all aspects of the nomenclature, systematics and taxonomy of pollen and spores throughout his life; his first publication on this topic was Traverse (1956). Similarly, he was profoundly interested in all aspects of techniques in palynology (e.g. Traverse 1965; Litwin & Traverse 1989).

Al was one of the authors of the well-known ‘Catalog of Fossil Spores and Pollen’ (CFSP) which was initiated in 1957. The CFSP is a comprehensive systematic compendium of the original descriptions and illustrations of pre-Quaternary pollen and spore taxa. This major series was instigated in 1956 by Gerhard O.W. Kremp (1913–1994), while he was at Penn State working with Bill Spackman on the palynology of the coals of South Dakota. The first editors were Herbert Tate Ames, Hilda Grebe, Gerhard Kremp and Bill Spackman (Traverse et al. 1970). Al joined this team, was a member of the Editorial Board between 1957 and 1966 and served as editor-in-chief in 1966–1967. He co-authored volumes 26 to 40 between 1967 and 1976 (see the supplementary online information). The series was discontinued in the 1980s; the final volume, number 44, was published in 1985 (Traverse 2007, p. 35).

Unlike many other palynologists Al was a relatively late convert to biostratigraphy. His first biostratigraphical paper was Dunay & Traverse (1971), which was published when Al was in his mid-40s. Very many other contributions on palynostratigraphy followed, over a wide range of ages from Ordovician to Neogene (e.g. Pazzaglia et al. 1997; Strother et al. 2015). Later he turned his attention to topics such as archaeology, fungal spores, and global floral dynamics and evolution (e.g. Traverse 1982; 1988b; Traverse & Ash 1994; Dunning et al. 1998).

Without any doubt, the pinnacle of Al's publication record is his textbook Paleopalynology. This is the only single-author textbook in English on pre-Quaternary palynology, and it ran to two editions (Traverse 1988a; 2007). Tschudy & Scott (1969) is a relatively old text, overwhelmingly focussed on terrestrially-derived palynomorphs, comprising 18 chapters written by different specialists. Evitt (1985) is entirely on dinoflagellate cysts, and Jansonius & McGregor (1996) is a three-volume set with 32 chapters written by many different authors including Al (Traverse 1996). Paleopalynology formed the core of Al's popular undergraduate course Geosciences/Biology 423 that he ran at Penn State, and undoubtedly played a similar role in the hands of many other teachers of pre-Quaternary palynology the world over. Al said about Paleopalynology that ‘it offered most of the information necessary to teach a good course in palynology, and as a handy, one-volume reference to palynological subjects.’ Its utility is significantly enhanced by a comprehensive bibliography, glossary and index.

Paleopalynology is a remarkable book; it is superbly-written, and phrased in an extremely personable style such that it is almost like reading a novel. The first edition, which was 600 pages, has 18 chapters which are very logically set out. Pre-Quaternary palynology was defined, and its limitations were discussed in the first two chapters. The biology and morphology chapters (4 and 5 respectively) were all on pollen and spores; marine palynomorphs were only discussed as appropriate in the chapters on stratigraphical palynology (6–16). The stratigraphical chapters are comprehensive, consummately-researched and well-illustrated with very many quite small photomicrographs. It would be a very useful book to take if one was dispatched on a remote biostratigraphy mission and had limited luggage space. One of the joys of the book is that Al discussed and illustrated important figures in both historical and contemporary palynology. Giving photographs of eminent palynologists such as Charles Downie, Robert Potonié, and David Wall really brought the book to life (Traverse 1988a, p. 13, 123, 244).

In the intervening two decades Al revised the book, and the second edition was issued nineteen years later (Traverse 2007). It had the same basic structure, but was significantly larger at 813 pages and the front cover proudly sports a fabulous montage of palynomorphs compiled by Rodolfo Dino together with four notable palynomorphs selected by Al. He did a superb job in updating this work and consulted widely. All the present authors, and many others, helped Al; for example he illustrated some of the Australian Jurassic dinoflagellate cysts formalised by JBR in 2001 (Traverse 2007, p, 382–383). More photographs of prominent palynologists were included this time, including David J. Batten, William G. Chaloner, Alfred Eisenack, William C. Elsik, Sir Harry Godwin, Jan Jansonius and Sofiya N. Naumova (Traverse 2007, p. 197, 218, 231, 331, 408, 475, 561). Betty Traverse significantly helped Al with information technology and secretarial support for both issues of the book, and each edition was reviewed by Hughes (1989) and Gajewski (2008) respectively. The first edition of Paleopalynology was followed by another major text edited by Al, entitled Sedimentation of organic particles (Traverse 1994b). This is a book comprising 23 chapters, totalling 544 pages, arranged into four sections based on geological age and authored by 35 experts on kerogen macerals (‘palynodebris’) and palynomorph taphonomy, two of Al's major research interests. Many of the authors presented papers on this topic at the International Palynological Congress in Brisbane, Australia in 1988 at a symposium organised by Al. Some of the presentations in Brisbane were published in volume 64 of Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology in 1990. However Traverse (1994b) was inspired by the Brisbane symposium, but is a far broader treatment of the subject than what was presented in Australia. The emphasis throughout is on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the sedimentation of all types of organic particles, and the text explores their relevance in palaeoecology and sequence stratigraphy. Traverse (1994b) is one of the major works on palynofacies, and the chapters describe studies on a wide variety of geological ages and localities. Again Betty helped Al out greatly with all aspects of this book, which was reviewed by Hooghiemstra (1995).

8. Al Traverse and committees

Al's contribution to palynology extended significantly beyond his research and teaching. He was an active and enthusiastic member of several international and national organisations associated with geology and palaeontology. In particular he was one of the 32 founder members of the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists (AASP), now AASP – the Palynological Society, in 1967. Al was also one of the members of the inaugural board of directors, serving as the first Secretary-Treasurer of AASP, between 1967 and 1970. He was subsequently President/Past-President in 1970–1972, and was the archivist of the association from 1984 onwards. The society honoured Al with their Medal for Excellence in Education in 2001, and made him an Honorary Life Member in 2005 (Demchuk & Riding 2008). Al published two contributions on the early history of AASP (Traverse & Sullivan 1983; Traverse 2008). In 1967, when the founder members of AASP were deciding on a name for the association, Al suggested ‘The Society of North American Palynologists (SNAP)’. Many years later in 2007, he proposed a change from AASP to The Palynological Society, which was accepted by the membership as AASP – the Palynological Society (McCarthy 2007; Demchuk & Riding 2008; Traverse 2008). When the board of AASP were searching for a base for their Center of Excellence in Palynology (CENEX) during the late 1980s, Al offered up Penn State. The eventual decision on the location of CENEX was that it was to be established at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge. Al was understandably very dismayed by this and unfortunately the decision had a significantly adverse effect on Al's relationship with the association for many years.

Al was also the first President of the International Commission for Palynology (ICP) between 1977 and 1980; he was in this post for the 5^th International Palynological Conference in Cambridge, UK during the summer of 1980. The ICP became the International Federation of Palynological Societies (IFPS) in 1984 (Canright 1984). Al also served IFPS as a Councillor, and was the archivist for many years.

Al was a botanist just as much as he was a palynologist, and he exhibited the classic botanical penchant for nomenclature and taxonomy. He was Secretary of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) Committee for Fossil Plants from 1969 to 1994, and continued to serve as a committee member. During 1950, Al joined the Botanical Society of America. He became active in the Palaeobotanical Section, serving twice as Chairman (1958 and 1960–1961) and Secretary-Treasurer (1957–1960). Al was an accomplished editor, and served on the editorial board of Palaeontographica Abteilung B from 1992 onwards. From 1950, he was also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Geological Society of America (GSA). Al was also a member of many other scientific organisations such as the American Quaternary Association and the International Organisation of Palaeobotany.

9. Scientific highlights in Al's career

One of the high points in Al's career was being invited to be an on-board scientist (palynologist) on Leg 42B, a cruise of the Glomar Challenger in the Black Sea during May and June 1975, with the then Deep Sea Drilling Project (now the International Ocean Discovery Program). Later in his life, he always enjoyed conjuring up some of the results of that expedition to support his argument in whatever controversy he was engaged in. As a direct result of this position, Al was appointed as a Visiting Professor at the Geology Department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland between 1980 and 1981 during a sabbatical. Betty accompanied Al, and he presented a course on Cenozoic palynology while at ETH. His sponsor in Zürich was Professor Ken J. Hsü, who had been the chief scientist on the DSDP Black Sea cruise, and who had previously worked with Al at Shell.

Al was appointed Adjunct Professor of Geobiology by Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, between 1977 and 1982, where he presented occasional lectures. Some years later, in April 1989, Al was an invited speaker at the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) Symposium on Global Change held at Interlaken in Switzerland (Ricklefs et al. 1990). Following this, he was frequently asked to present keynote talks, an example being an address to the Asociación de Palinólogos de Lengua Española (APLE) at their 10^th Symposium in Valencia, Spain during September 1994.

In 1991–1992, Al and Betty returned to Europe, when Al took up a Fulbright Professorship at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Germany at the invitation of the director, Willi Ziegler. Al worked in the Palaeobotanical Section which was led at the time by Friedemann Schaarschmidt. At this time, he finalised editing Traverse (1994b). As a result of this working visit, Al was elected a Corresponding Member of the Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft (Senckenberg Nature Research Society) in 1992. This is a scholarly society for the natural sciences founded by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1817, and named for the pioneer German academic Johann Christian Senckenberg (1707–1772). Al joined a very select group as there are only around 30 members worldwide.

During his time in Frankfurt am Main, Al visited the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany (BSIP) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India in November 1991. This visit coincided with the Birbal Sahni Centennial celebrations and he was awarded the Biennial International Medal for 1991–1992 by the Palaeobotanical Society of India for ‘outstanding contributions to palynology.’ Like most overseas visitors to the BSIP, Al worked for a short time there and presented several invited lectures to the staff.

10. Nomenclature and taxonomy (WGC)

Al was always very open about changing his mind – a process he was driven to several times in his life-long involvement with fossil plant nomenclature and taxonomy. As a member of the IAPT Fossil Plant Committee for many years, Al always enjoyed debating the often extremely convoluted issues associated with fossil plant nomenclature – both verbally at congresses, and in a number of publications.

One of the several areas of nomenclatural controversy to which Al made a significant contribution was the use of modern generic names for Palaeogene/Neogene angiosperm pollen. This arose at an early stage in his career from his attributing several of the pollen types in the Brandon Lignite, to extant genera such as Nyssa (Traverse 1955). But as he wrote many years later: ‘For years I felt that, where the generic reference is absolutely clear, there is no reason at all to avoid the extant generic name. However, after decades of thinking about the matter, I have now changed my mind and now feel that pre-Pleistocene sporomorphs should be referred to morphotaxa (morphogenera, morphospecies) such as Nyssapollenites, not Nyssa, even though, for example, association with other organs makes it clear that Nyssa pollen in the Brandon Lignite described by me (Traverse 1955) was produced by plants that probably were congeneric with the extant genus Nyssa’ (Traverse 2007, p. 413). So although he withdrew from his original stance, he characteristically clearly communicated that he felt that the basis for it had been perfectly valid!

Another related debate that Al enjoyed involved the term ‘morphotaxon’. That designation, applicable to fossil taxa in the Vienna Code, was taken out of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants (previously the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, or ICBN), following the Melbourne International Botanical Congress of July 2011. Writing as a member of the Fossil Plant Committee, commenting on the proposal that led to its removal he wrote: ‘The elimination of morphotaxon ….seems to me questionable. At least, the subject needs more thinking about various ramifications. Let's take paleopalynology as an example. Aquilapollenites is a generic name for a kind of (mostly) Cretaceous angiosperm pollen grains. In no way could such a generic name (and there are several thousand of them) be applied to anything other than dispersed pollen grains. If they are found in the anthers of a megafossil flower, called say Stupidoflora, they would be the “pollen of Stupidoflora” with a note that the pollen, if found dispersed, would be Aquilapollenites. The latter is a morphotaxon name by definition of the ICBN and could not become the name of a flower or of a plant’ (personal communication to WGC, 2010). But, despite Al's plea, the term morphotaxon has vanished from the present Code.

11. Various anecdotes

Some of Al's contemporaries have suggested that he took life rather too seriously, and was lacking in a well-tuned sense of humour. The present authors never felt this, but rather that we were tuned to the same wavelength. Once while Al and WGC were driving to a Silurian palynological collecting site in Pennsylvania, Al needed some guidance on finding the location. He cheerfully reached for a road map in the back of the car in those happy, pre-satellite navigation days. He placed it across his lap below the steering wheel and began to peruse the map while driving, occasionally glancing up at the traffic. After some minutes of this, and several near misses, WGC snatched the map from Al's lap and said ‘I'll read the map, you drive!’ Al took this in good humour and roared with laughter, explaining that he often did this. He went on to say that while ‘on open interstates with little traffic I also peel bananas and oranges while simultaneously studying language cards.’ Al added that Betty's reaction to his map-reading had been similar to WGC's, but she had never actually snatched the map away.

A more recent illustration of his cheery acceptance of the results of surviving into one's late eighties was his aside in the course of an email to WGC in 2012. It reads: ‘I am now ‘four score and seven years’ as in the Gettysburg address. That made me think of the fact that from Lincoln's assassination in April 1865 to the birth of our son, Paul, was exactly 87 years – man that is a LONG time and I must be OLD.’ He went on to remark that ‘since 70 years ago I have been a skilled touch typist – no more. I hit 30% wrong keys. I am doing this with one finger.’

Al cheerfully embraced new ideas and technology. One example of this is his delight in using the relatively new online encyclopaedias. JBR recalls being told that, in the severe Pennsylvanian winters, he and Betty would enthusiastically use pages torn from their complete and venerable set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica to light their log-burning stoves!

There is one final anecdote which Al never knew about. Early in the career of JBR, a colleague (Ronald Woollam) asked if Jim was going to the morning coffee break. JBR was deep in microscope work at that instant and replied that he would indeed attend, but only when he had ‘finished his current Alfred.’ Woollam questioned this, and was told that an Alfred is rhyming slang for a traverse (of the microscope slide). Non-UK-based readers should refer to Ayto (2002).

12. Retirement (1995–2015)

During 1995, Al formally retired from Penn State, becoming Professor Emeritus in perpetuity, although he presented his beloved Geosciences/Biology 423 course for the final time in 1996. After Al's retirement, he and Betty could enjoy their country estate close to Penn State to the full. This was appropriately named Alphabet Arboretum, because it was largely wooded land with a relatively high arboreal diversity. For example, Al was delighted to find that some mature, flowering American chestnut trees (Castanea dentata (Marsh) Borkh.) were growing on his land, despite the ravages of the introduced chestnut blight which was brought to North America early in the twentieth century (Rich & Strother 2015). Clearly, the name Alphabet Arboretum appealed to him because it combined his and Betty's names – a point Al always liked to make. Because Al was always at heart a botanist, and one who enjoyed rural life, he greatly enjoyed country activities such as felling timber and cutting logs for fuel.

Despite being retired, Al just could not keep away from science and he affirmed a tangible commitment to botany by becoming the Adjunct Curator of the Penn State Herbarium from 2007 until 2015. This had great historical significance for Penn State. The herbarium was initiated by its first President, the agricultural chemist Dr Evan Pugh (1828–1864), who acquired much of the original botanical material in Germany, from around Göttingen where he lived at the time and elsewhere (https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/pshistory/presidents/pugh.html). Significantly, Evan Pugh believed that the herbarium was an important base for research and teaching in what had been the ‘Farmers High School’ and renamed by him, the ‘Pennsylvania College of Agriculture’. When he retired, Al added the ∼5000 specimens from his personal herbarium to the Penn State Herbarium. Al was honoured to continue Evan Pugh's legacy, who correctly believed that a herbarium was essential for an institution which researched and taught agriculture. During his retirement years, Al rearranged and updated the herbarium, and incorporated much more material. Consequently, the number of specimens rose from 95,000 to 107,000 under Al's tenure; a truly phenomenal retirement project!

13. Conclusions

Al Traverse was a hugely important figure in palaeobotany and palynology. He was a consummate advisor/mentor, teacher and researcher, and he achieved some significant ‘firsts’. Al wrote the first pre-Quaternary PhD dissertation in North America, and was one of the first ever professors of palynology. During his early years he excelled at school to postgraduate level. He decided upon his botanical/palaeobotanical vocation very early, as an undergraduate in fact. Al spent 15 years variously in government service, in the oil industry and as a priest before settling down at Penn State. Here he taught the massively popular and far-sighted undergraduate course Geosciences/Biology 423 for 30 years. Al single-handedly trained a prodigious number of palynologists. He published widely on a very diverse range of topics, and his highlights were two major textbooks and co-authorship of the ‘Catalog of Fossil Spores and Pollen’ between 1967 and 1976. Al worked hard for a number of scientific societies, notably AASP – the Palynological Society. Al loved to travel, and undertook significant research visits to Germany, India and Switzerland. Typically he would study the language of a country he was visiting or was about to visit. After retiring from Penn State in 1996, Al became Adjunct Curator of the Penn State Herbarium between 2007 and 2015. He was also a very cultured individual. He creatively used a palaeobotanically-relevant extract from The Lost World by Michael Crichton to introduce the second edition of Paleopalynology (Traverse 2007, p. vii). There is no doubt that Al could be both charming and pleasant but he also had a somewhat steely side, particularly in the professional arena.

Al Traverse is survived by his wife Betty, their four children, John Insley, Celia Elizabeth, Paul Whitney and Martha Jane, seven grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and two step-great-grandchildren. Both his family, and the world of palaeobotany and palynology, will miss him greatly.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.