APSU professor’s “lifetime work” published, identifies state plants
May 8, 2015
Clarksville, TN – In January 1967, while The Rolling Stones performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and a blizzard dropped 23 inches of snow across Chicago, a young Austin Peay State University botany professor began a project that would take him nearly 50 years to complete.
Dr. Edward Chester, his suit then smelling of chalkboard dust and his dark hair pomaded in the style of Jerry Lee Lewis, sat at his desk that winter to write a comprehensive guide identifying all of Tennessee’s 2,878 vascular plants.
Dr. Edward Chester served as a contributor and primary editor for the new textbook, “Guide to the Vascular Plants of Tennessee.” (Beth Liggett/APSU)
