Dr Sanford writes in his APIS newsletter about the death of a famous
beekeeper: Roger Morse.   In my early days of beekeeping, I considered him
one of my mentors, and loved reading his articles in various bee
publications. The beekeeping world has truely lost an important beekeeping
icon.


Roger Morse Dies: A Giant Has Fallen

The Los Angeles Times; Sunday, May 28, 2000 carried the sad news that the
man who many considered the Dean of American Beekeeping has fallen.
According to the article, "Roger Alfred Morse, 72, turned a childhood
interest in beekeeping into an encyclopedic knowledge that made him a
highly regarded apiculturist.  An entomology professor at Cornell
University for more than 40 years, Morse was also a prolific author.  His
The Complete Guide to Beekeeping is one of the definitive works on the
subject.  He was born in Saugerties, N.Y.  Morse's father, a superintendent
of schools, kept bees as a hobby and instilled an interest in his son, who
began keeping hives at age 10.  Morse enrolled at Cornell University after
serving in the Army during and after World War II.  He received his
bachelor's degree and doctorate from the school before joining the faculty.
 He became chairman of the entomology department in 1986. Morse also
traveled extensively, often under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, teaching beekeepers in Africa, South America and the
Philippines how to improve their craft.  In reporting his death, The New
York Times noted that Morse was not impervious to bee stings. His daughter
Susan said that four days before his death, Morse returned home sporting
the evidence of another encounter with a bee. 'He died with a little bee
sting on his eye,' she said, on May 12 at his home in Ithaca, N.Y."

Roger will be greatly missed by the beekeeping community.  He was perhaps
the quintessential professor-beekeeper, able to assume both roles and speak
clearly about his passion to both communities.  He contributed much more to
apiculture than his guide mentioned above.  Among his most recent
achievements was editing the latest edition of ABC XYZ of Beekeeping and
contributing to authoring the latest information on the value of the honey
bee's pollination activities in the United States
<http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~mts/apishtm/Apis_2000/apapr_2000.htm#2>.  He was
also instrumental in developing the Archbold Biological Station snowbird
beekeepers' meeting in Florida

Paul Cronshaw, D.C.
Hobbyist Beekeeper
Santa Barbara, CA  USA

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