IN MEMORIAM
Dr. Richard R. Graber, Principal Scientist Emeritus, INHS Center for Wildlife Ecology, died July 28 at home, RR #1, Box 216A, Golconda, IL 62938, after a lingering illness. Dick is survived by his wife of nearly 53 years, Dr. Jean W. Graber. Jean has been a Professional Scientist, without salary, in the Center for Wildlife Ecology since September 1972. Dick was first employed at the Survey as an Associate Wildlife Specialist (ornithologist) in the (then) Game Section in September 1956. Upon his retirement in September 1983, he was promoted from Professional Scientist to Principal Scientist Emeritus. Dick and Jean continued their work (research on the interactions of insects and their larvae on bird feeding and migration) for the Survey, without salaries, from their home as long as Dick's health permitted. Richard R. Graber was born in Kingman County, Kansas, August 25, 1924. He received a B.S. degree from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in June 1948; an M.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in June 1949; and a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, in August 1955. Contributions in honor of Dr. Graber for the Illinois Audubon War Bluff Valley Wildlife Sanctuary may be given to the Center for Wildlife Ecology or mailed to John Wallace, Sanctuary Chairman, 121 Upper Forty Road, Makanda, IL 62958. The War Bluff Sanctuary consists of land donated to the Illinois Audubon Society by the Grabers. - Glen Sanderson
Dr. Robert A. Evers, botanist emeritus for the Survey, died on August 24 at the age of 86. A native of Quincy, Illinois, where he was born on January 17, 1912, Robert August Evers received his undergraduate degree from Kansas State University in 1933 and taught science courses at both junior and senior high schools in Quincy. He obtained an M.S. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1941, and in 1946 he joined the staff of the Illinois Natural History Survey as a botanist. While on the staff of the Survey he continued his graduate studies and was awarded his Ph.D. in 1951. For nearly 30 years, until his retirement in 1976, Bob Evers was a field botanist and zealous plant collector in Illinois, amassing a total of over 116,000 specimens, which form the core of the Survey's herbarium (ILLS) of which he was the curator. His field work resulted in a vast knowledge of Illinois' natural areas, which led to his publication Some Unusual Natural Areas of Illinois (1963, revised 1977). He was an officer of the Illinois Academy of Science and held memberships in numerous scientific and honorary societies. He regularly attended the annual American Society of Plant Taxonomists meetings, collecting as he traveled, as well as the fall systematic symposium at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Dr. Evers' 1955 publication Hill Prairies of Illinois, based on his Ph.D. dissertation, has become a classic. In the 1970s Bob resurveyed his earlier hill prairie study sites and found that most had been greatly reduced in size and some had disappeared. He co-authored with Glen S. Winterringer New Records for Illinois Vascular Plants: A Compilation (1960) and with Robert P. Link Poisonous Plants of the Midwest and Their Effects on Livestock (1972). - Ken Robertson