George Baker Cummins (August 29, 1904 – March 30, 2007) was a notable American mycologist and was considered an authority on the rust fungi. At his death he was the last surviving charter member of the Mycological Society of America.
Career
George Baker Cummins was affectionately known as "Mr. Rust" and he was recognized throughout the world as the authority on the rust fungi, the Puccinales, which are the largest order of disease-causing organisms of plants. Cummins professional specialty for almost his entire career was the taxonomy, biology and geographic distribution of the rust fungi. His investigations of the rusts took him to the Philippines, New Guinea, continental China, the Himalaya, central and western Africa, and North and South America.
Cummins began his mycological career at the age of 23 as a graduate student at the University of Michigan in 1927, meaning he was a mycologist for 80 years. He published his first journal paper in 1930 at the age of 26 and his last publication was the Illustrated Genera of Rust Fungi in 2003 at the age of 99.
Cummins studied the rust fungi at the internationally renowned Arthur Herbarium (Fungarium) at Purdue University, a collection dedicated to preserved specimens of rust fungi. He first came to Purdue University in 1930, as a research assistant under J. C. Arthur (another noted urediniologist to which the Arthur Fungarium owes its namesake) and worked with Arthur on Arthur's rust fungi monograph, published in 1934. Cummins was never a student of Arthur's although he gained a wealth of knowledge of rust fungi while working with him on the manual. He completed his PhD program at Purdue, working with several advisors, in 1935. Cummins was staff or faculty in the college of Agriculture, and the Agricultural Experiment Station at Purdue, for 40 years. He served as curator of the Arthur from 1938 - 1971 and built it to be one of the largest working collections of plant rust fungi in the world. The collection is especially rich in grasses, partly due to the interest of Cummins in collecting hosts for grass rusts. Cummins named over 600 new taxa or combinations in his 33-year career as curator. He was appointed professor in 1947 and was head of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology from 1966 to 1970, when he retired.
Cummins was active in teaching and instructed courses in general plant sciences and mycology. In collaboration with other departmental faculty he authored a textbook and laboratory manuals in plant sciences. He also served as major professor for graduate students in master's and doctoral programs. His students included J. W. Baxter, Y. Hiratsuka and J. F. Hennen. After retirement from Purdue Cummins moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he was appointed visiting research professor by the Department of Plant Pathology of the University of Arizona and was provided working facilities and microscopic equipment in the mycological herbarium. For the next 20 years he was a valued and highly productive faculty member.
Memberships and awards
Cummins held all of the offices of the Mycological Society of America; secretary treasurer (1942–1944), vice president (1945), president (1946) and councilor (1947–1948). He was also active in the American Phytopathological Society of America, the Mycological Society of Mexico, the Torrey Botanical Club, American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Southwestern Association of Naturalists, the Indiana Academy of Science, and the International Association for Plant Taxonomy. He was made a Life Member of the Mycological Society of America in 1967 and was the longest surviving charter member. His achievements were recognized by Montana State University (where he received a B.S. degree) when they conferred upon him an Honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1963. He became an Emeritus Professor at Purdue in 1971 and in recognition as the foremost authority on the rust fungi, Purdue University awarded him an honorary doctoral degree in 1981. Several other universities also awarded him honorary degrees including the Banco Nacional of Mexico which named him "Mencion honorifica" in 1982.
Contributions and literary works
Outstanding contributions by Cummins include a study of the phylogenetic significance of the pores in rust urediniospores, a monograph of the genus Prospodium, an illustrated manual of rust genera, and studies of major groups of grass rusts, some cooperatively with H. C. Greene and J. F. Hennen (Baxter, 1962).