Robert Almer Harper (January 21, 1862 – May 12, 1946) was an American botanist.

The younger brother of Edward Thompson Harper,[1] Robert was born in Le Claire, Iowa to Congressional Minister Almer Harper and Eunice Thompson.[2] The family moved to Port Byron, Illinois in 1863, where Robert attended local schools.[3] He matriculated to Oberlin College, his father's alma mater,[3] where he graduated with a A. B. in 1886.[2] During the Fall of 1886 he performed graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University,[3] then he was professor of Greek and Latin at Gates College in Neligh, Nebraska during 1886–88.[4]

In 1889–91 he was an instructor at the Lake Forest Academy.[2][3] After receiving his A. M. degree from Oberlin, he was appointed professor of botany and geology in 1891–98 at Lake Forest University.[1] During the period 1894 to 1896, took a sabbatical to attend graduate school at the University of Bonn in Germany[5] where he studied cytology and mycology;[3] he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1896.[2]

Harper became Professor of Botany at the University of Wisconsin in 1898, where he taught until 1911. On June 25, 1899, he was married to Alice Jean McQueen; she died in 1909.[2] After a stint as visiting professor at the University of California in 1911,[3] he was named Torrey Professor of Botany at Columbia University,[1] becoming head of the botany department. The same year, Professor Harper was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[6]

A member of the Torrey Botanical Club since 1911, he was named president during 1914–16.[3] He served as president of the Botanical Society of America in 1916.[7] Harper remarried in 1918 to Helen Sherman;[5] they had one son, who became a farmer in Bedford, Virginia. Beginning in 1918, he served as head of the board of scientific directors for the New York Botanical Garden.[4] He was named professor emeritus in 1930, then in 1938 he retired to a farm in Bedford.[3][5] During his career he was awarded honorary doctorates from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.[3]

Bibliography

He published the following works:[3]

References