The Plant Press

From The Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 1, January 2021.

Harold Robinson, prominent Smithsonian botanist, dies at 88

By Botany Staff

Harold E. Robinson, Smithsonian Curator Emeritus, passed away at the age of 88 on December 17, 2020, after suffering a major stroke earlier in the week.

Robinson was born in 1932 and raised in Winchester, Virginia. From an early age, he showed an interest in the natural world and has long balanced a focus on plants with a profound interest in zoology. Robinson carried out his undergraduate studies at Ohio University, where he majored in Botany and minored in Zoology. He then continued at the University of Tennessee, where he earned a Master’s degree with a Botany major and Entomology minor. Although his thesis focused on flowering plants, he also began working on mosses, which were the focus of his Ph.D. research at Duke University. Robinson graduated from Duke in 1960, again with a Botany major and a Zoology minor. After a brief stint at Wofford College, he accepted a position at the Smithsonian Institution in 1962.

During his 49 years as a Curator in the Department of Botany, and subsequently as a resident Curator Emeritus, Robinson was incredibly productive, publishing more than 950 papers. Using comparative morphology, Robinson carried out extensive studies of the largest and most diverse of the plant families (Asteraceae, over 27,000 species). This work capitalized on the use of micromorphology, not extensively employed prior to his work on the family, and required a large collection like that in the United States National Herbarium. 

Robinson was also a specialist on the Dolichopodidae, a group of flies, with more than 30 publications on this side interest. Despite these broad interests in the sunflower family and flies, Robinson also kept up with work on the mosses, which was where he got his start in graduate school. He continued to occasionally study these plants using the same micromorphological techniques he employed elsewhere, published 50 research papers on bryophytes, and continued to curate these plants in the U.S. National Herbarium. 

In 2010, his work was recognized with the Asa Gray award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.