Earl Allen Wernsman Ph.D.

1935 - 2025

Earl Allen Wernsman, Ph.D.

November 4, 1935 - January 16, 2025

Raleigh, North Carolina - Earl Allen Wernsman, son of the late Everett and Eleanor Marie Johnson Wernsman, was born November 4, 1935, in Marion County, Illinois. He died peacefully in his home on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Dr. Wernsman received his primary education in Marion County schools and enrolled in the University of Illinois in 1954, where he received BS and MS degrees in agronomy. He attended Purdue University and was granted a Doctor of Philosophy degree in agronomy and plant genetics in 1963. After studying as a postdoctoral research associate at Iowa State University, Dr. Wernsman accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Crop Science and Genetics at North Carolina State University in 1964. He was promoted by the University to Associate Professor in 1968 and Professor in 1972.

For 20 years Dr. Wernsman taught graduate courses in plant breeding methods and plant breeding theory at N. C. State University. He served as graduate advisor for more than 20 students who received M.S. and Doctorate degrees, and he was the host of numerous international scientists and postdoctoral associates who studied in his laboratory. The focus of their research program was plant genetic modification and was a time reducing method for plant improvement.

Dr. Wernsman was widely recognized nationally and internationally for his research program on the genetics of Nicotiana, the genus to which tobacco belongs. He and his students developed and released scores of flue-cured and burley tobacco hybrid that were widely grown in the U.S. and internationally as well. At the time of his retirement from the University in 2005, 50 percent of the flue-cured tobacco acreage in the Southeast was planted with varieties developed by Dr. Wernsman and his students.

Dr. Wernsman's advice and counsel was widely sought by the international tobacco industry. He consulted with numerous agencies in Chile, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Spain. He worked for 35 years as an advisor to agencies within the Ministry of Agriculture in Spain, and he and his Spanish colleagues developed numerous tobacco hybrids grown throughout the Mediterranean area today.

Dr. Wernsman was recognized for his contributions to science by being awarded a Fellowship in the Crop Science Society of America. He was a recipient of the Coresta Prize, the Arthur Manzelli award from Coresta and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Tobacco Growers Association. Dr. Wernsman was a William Neal Reynolds Professor Emeritus in Crop & Soil Science, and Plant Genetics at NC State University.

Earl Wernsman married his high school sweetheart, Doris Katherine Metzger, in 1959 who preceded him in death in 2024. He is survived by his daughter, Dana her husband, Bruce and granddaughter, Neeva.

A private celebration of Dr. Wernsman's life is being planned for his immediate family and close friends.

Brown-Wynne, 300 Saint Mary's St., Raleigh, is serving the Wernsman family.