Janice Carson Beatley, native Ohio botanist, will be remembered for her contributions toward the understanding of the wintergreen herbaceous flora of the deciduous forest region, the primeval forests of the un-glaciated plateau in southeastern Ohio, and the ecological relationships of the vascular-plant flora of the Atomic Test Site in central-southern Nevada. Dr. Beatley was an outspoken advocate for ecological and environmental concerns while employed in seven different academic and research institutions and through active memberships in seven societies, whose mission is to save habitats and environments of natural areas. As professor of biological sciences at the University of Cincinnati (1973-87), Dr. Beatley taught courses in plant ecology and field botany and continued her research on the flora of the Nevada Test Site. Returning to Ohio and teaching in the same department where Dr E Lucy Braun, the eminent plant ecologist, taught for 34 years and maintained her lifetime affiliation, fulfilled a long-held dream. Death came to Janice at age 68, on 14 November 1987 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Born 18 March 1918 in Columbus, Ohio, Janice was the second child of Earle and Alice Elizabeth (Carson) Beatley. She was educated in the Columbus public school system, graduating from North High School (1935). All of her college degrees were from The Ohio State University:
BA {cum laude, 1940) with a major in zoology; MS (1948) and PhD (1953), both in botany with research in plant ecology. She assisted in the general botany program and held appointments as an assistant, assistant instructor, and instructor, in addition to a pre-doctoral university scholarship (1953), a post-doctoral Mary S Muelhaupt Scholarship (1957-58), and instructorships in general botany (1955-56). Other professional positions included science teacher, McArthur High School in Ohio (1943-45), instructor in botany, University of Tennessee (spring/summer 1952; summers 1953-55) and later acting assistant professor (summers 1957, 1959-60); assistant professor, East Carolina College, Greenville (1954-55); acting assistant professor, North Carolina State University, Raleigh (1956-57); research associate, New Mexico Highlands University (1959); assistant (1960-67) and associate (1967-73) research ecologist, Laboratory of Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, and the Nevada Test Site at Mercury, Nevada; associate professor (1973-77) and professor (1977-87) of biological sciences, University of Cincinnati; and research associate in the Herbarium of The Ohio State University (1983-87).
Janice Beatley's research efforts were ambitious, being stimulated and directed by Professor John N Wolfe, under whom she completed both graduate degrees. Her master's thesis, "The Wintergreen Herbaceous Angiosperms of Ohio" (1948), was published in The Ohio Journal of Science (1956), and her doctoral dissertation, "The Primary Forests of Vinton and Jackson Counties, Ohio" (1953), was prepared as a Bulletin of the Ohio Biological Survey (1959). Dr Beatley's career research was conducted at the Nevada Atomic Test Site in south-central Nevada, where for 13 years (1960-73) she studied the region's ecological-floristic relationships. At least 36 published papers and 11 abstracts are cited in her bibliography.
Her most comprehensive study there resulted in a 316-page book, Vascular Plants of the Nevada Test Site and Central-southern Nevada: Ecologic and Geographic Distributions (1976).
Dr Beatley's other research interests included a publication on "The sunflowers (Helianthus) in Tennessee" (J Tenn Acad Sci, (1963) and on the "Distribution of buckeyes (Aesculus) in Ohio" (Castanea (1979). The buckeyes were one of her favorite botanical endeavors, and Dr Clara G Weishaupt, her good friend and then curator of The Ohio State University Herbarium, was a frequent companion on these "buckeye" field trips. Another field botanical friend was Mr Floyd Bartley who accompanied her while on field work in Jackson and Vinton counties.
Dr Beatley was a member of a number of professional scientific organizations, including the Ecological Society of America, American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee Academies of Science, California Botanical Society, Association of Southeastern Biologists, Southern Appalachian Botanical Club, and the Northern Nevada Native Plant Society. Because of her concerns for the preservation of the ecological conditions and habitats of organisms in natural areas, she held life memberships in the Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy; and active memberships in the Friends of the Earth, The Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife, National Wildlife Federation, and the National Parks and Conservation Association.
She was elected into memberships of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society.
Janice Carson Beatley is survived by her older brother, Charles E Beatley, Jr of Alexandria, Virginia, and her younger sster, Mary Alice (Beatley) Jordan of Sunland, California, along with their six children and six great nieces and nephews. Graveside services were held 21 November 1987 at Oakdale Cemetery, Urbana, Ohio, where Janice was laid to rest next to her Carson grandparents and other family members. Memorial contributions may continue to be made to the Ohio Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. (The Ohio Journal of Science) ~RONALD L STUCKEY