HOWARD S. IRWIN

IRWIN--Howard S., a botanist and former president of the New York Botanical Garden, died at home in Truro, MA, on January 23, from complications related to Alzheimer's disease. He was 90. He led a series of field trips, 1964-1972, in south-central Brazil during which many new plant species were discovered in what was then a taxonomically little-known part of the world. The online catalog of the collection describes its 42,000 specimens as "one of the jewels of the NYBG Herbarium." Before earning his Ph.D. in 1960, he taught biology as a Fulbright instructor at Queen's College, a secondary school for boys in British Guiana (now Guyana). Following his presidency at NYBG and a vice chancellorship at Long Island University, he directed Clark Botanic Garden, in Albertson, NY. He retired in 1991 and moved to Cape Cod, where for years he chaired the Truro Conservation Commission, represented Truro on the Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Committee, and wrote a weekly gardening column for the Provincetown Banner. His first marriage ended in divorce. In 1979 he married Anne Lieb Wolff, who survives him, as do two daughters, Elizabeth Irwin Moore and Dorothy Irwin; two stepdaughters, Nina Wolff and Amy Wolff; a stepson, Eric Wolff; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.