David Pearce Penhallow | |
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| Born | (1854-05-25)May 25, 1854 Kittery Point, Maine (United States) |
| Died | October 20, 1910(1910-10-20) (aged 56) |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Agricultural College |
| Known for | Botany andPaleobotany |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany (Paleobotany) |
| Institutions | McGill University,Montreal Canada |
David Pearce Penhallow (25 May 1854 – 20 October 1910) was a Canadian-American[1]botanist,paleobotanist andeducator.[2][3]
Born inKittery Point, Maine, Penhallow graduated fromMassachusetts Agricultural College in 1873 (now theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst). When his former professor,William S. Clark was asked by the Japanese government to assist in the founding ofSapporo Agricultural College (nowHokkaido University), Penhallow accompanied Clark and another MAC graduate,William Wheeler, to teach botany andchemistry. When Clark departed the Sapporo in 1877, Penhallow served as acting President from 1879 to 1880. During his stay in Japan, Penhallow travelled across the archipelago and among other accomplishments became the first westerner to stay with theAinu peoples.[4]
Upon returning to North America in 1880, Penhallow became an assistant to notedHarvard University botanistAsa Gray and assisted with Gray's research into the distribution of northern hemisphere plants.[5] Penhallow left Harvard in 1882 to become a botanist and chemist at theHoughton Farm Experiment Station which was located inHoughton, New York, however the station closed only one year later. While Penhallow was working at Houghton Farm, Gray was contacted bySr John Dawson ofMcGill University who was looking for a suitable person to fill the vacancy left at McGill with the death of botanistJames Barnston.[4] Penhallow accepted and became a lecturer at McGill and in 1883 became the first botanist appointed to theMacdonald Chair of Botany. During this time Penhallow delved into the newly developing science ofpaleobotany with the encouragement of Dawson. He was noted for his early work onDevonian fossils of theGaspé peninsula and theTertiary fossils of theBritish Columbiacoal fields.[4] He conducted detailed work on extinct taxa such asPrototaxites[4] andAzolla primaeva.[6]
Penhallow continued with his education and in 1888 he earned hisBS fromBoston University. Eight years later in 1896 he was awarded both a BS and anMS from McGill 1896, and finally aDS in 1904. After allegedly suffering from amental breakdown in 1909, Penhallow died on theSSLake Manitoba during a voyage from Montreal toLiverpool, England.[4]
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