Frank S. Santamour Papers

Frank S. Santamour (1932-2000) was a research geneticist in the Floral and Nursery Plants Research Unit of the U.S. National Arboretum. He received his M.S. in forestry from Yale University in 1954, his A.M. in biology from Harvard University in 1957, and his Ph.D. in forestry with a minor in plant genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1960. He worked at the Northeast Forest Experimentation Station, U.S. Forest Service, from 1957 to 1964. He then became a geneticist for the Morris Arboretum at the University of Pennsylvania from 1964 to 1967. In 1967, he joined the research staff of the U.S. National Arboretum and continued working there until his death in 2000. An author or coauthor of more than 275 publications, he was a leading authority on the genetics, breeding, and development of landscape trees. Some of his achievements included using biochemical methods to examine graft incompatibility, insect and disease resistance; verifying interspecific hybrids in several genera; studying wound compartmentalization; and improving the nomenclature of landscape trees.