Parents:
Don Archibald Pedro Gunckel, born 18 Mar 1890, Germantown, Montgomery Co, OH.
Goldie Beatrice Bea Stanley. born 5 Aug 1892, in Indiana.
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United States Social Security Death Index
Name James E Gunckel
Middle Name E
State Ohio
Last Place of Residence SCHENECTADY, New York
Previous Residence Postal Code 12056
Age 97
Birth Date 08 Jun 1914
Death Date 19 Sep 2011
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OBITUARY
GUNCKEL--Dr. James E., a pioneering botanist in both meristem culture and radiation biology at Rutgers University, died September 19 in Jamesburg, NJ. He was 97.
In addition to teaching a generation of plant scientists the art and science of plant tissue cloning, Dr. Gunckel became a leading expert on the effects of radiation on a variety of plant species. He served as an expert witness on the probable impact of radiation leakage on the ecosystem surrounding Three Mile Island. Dr. Gunckel was particularly proud of the career achievements of his many graduate students at Rutgers. "They always wanted to thank him for his commitment to preparing them to assume leading research positions in academia," recalls Dr. Rod Sharp, one of those graduate students who later rose to the position of Director of Research at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. "Professor Gunckel would say, 'Don't thank me. Just pass it on to the next generation.'"
Published by New York Times on Sep. 25, 2011.
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Dr. James E. Gunckel, a retired professor of botany at Rutgers University, died September 19, 2011, at Monroe Village, Jamesburg, N.J. He was 97.
He is survived by his 70-year companion and wife, R. Jean (Longworth) Gunckel, a son, Fred James Gunckel of Albuquerque, N.M., and daughter, Nancy Gunckel Knight, of Duanesburg, N.Y., as well as two grandsons, Jeffrey A. Knight, Brooklyn, N.Y. and Matthew James Knight, Ithaca, N.Y., and four great-grandchildren.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, he graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1938 and received his doctorate at Harvard in 1946, where he studied and began his research career under Dr. Ralph Wetmore and Dr. Kenneth Thiman. At Rutgers, he chaired what was then called the Botany Department for many years and did pioneering work in two important areas of study: tissue culture (plant cloning) and radiation biology, where he produced benchmark studies on the affect of radiation on a variety of plant species. A prolific publisher of scientific articles, he presided at many national and international botanical meetings, served as the translating editor of the seminal German botanical text General Botany by Wilhelm Nultsch, and edited the textbook Current Topics in Plant Science. A former president of the Torrey Botanical Society, the oldest botanical society in America, he also served many years as editor of The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Society, a refereed botanical journal. In 1959,60, having been a awarded a Waksman Foundation Fellowship, he did meristem (plant tissue cloning) research at Station Centrale de Physiologic Vegetate, at Versailles, France, under the tutelage of Dr. Georges Morel. His unequaled knowledge of radiation biology, much of it gained through his many summers of research at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, led to his being called upon to provide expert testimony in a legal case pertaining to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident. Dr.Gunckel was particularly proud of the career achievements of his many graduate students at Rutgers. They always wanted to thank him for his commitment to preparing them to assume leading research positions in academia. Professor Gunckel would say, "Don't thank me. Just pass it on to the next generation." His quiet devotion to his home gardens in Somerville and to the Second Reformed Church of New Brunswick, where he was an ordained elder and served in volunteer leadership roles, was well known to his close friends.
A memorial celebration of his life will be held at 1:30 p.m., Monday, October 3, in the Kieffer Auditorium of Monroe Village, Jamesburg. Cards and letters of remembrance and condolence may be sent to Nancy G. Knight, 1399 West Duane Lake Road, Duanesburg, NY 12056.
Published by Home News Tribune on Sep. 25, 2011.