Ellis Cowling

1932 - 2021

Ellis Cowling
December 11, 1932 - September 23, 2021
Cary, North Carolina - Ellis B. Cowling, 88, passed away September 23, 2021, at Glenaire where he and his wife Bettsy had been living in recent years. In addition to his wife of 63 years, Bettsy, he is survived by daughters Evelyn Blackley and Emily Price and her husband Rick, grandchildren Travis and Caroline Blackley, great granddaughter Lizzy Blackley, a brother Neil, and several nieces and nephews.
Dr. Cowling was University Distinguished Professor At-Large Emeritus of Forestry and Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University. Since 1965 he has specialized in biochemistry of wood decay, conservation of essential elements by forest trees, diseases of forest trees and deterioration of timber products, the role of nitrogen in coevolution of forest trees and wood destroying fungi, and integrated management of plant diseases.
His other research interests included man-induced changes in the chemical climate and their effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the role of scientists in public decision making. Helping develop a nationwide system for monitoring acid deposition called the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, he became the director of the Southern Oxidants Study in 1993. His appointment as the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee of Faculty at NC State University contributed to the preservation and relocation of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1999. In that same period, he chaired the University's Task Force on Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure.
Born in Waukeegan, Illinois, in 1932, Ellis grew up in upstate New York. He received his B. S. in Wood Technology from Syracuse University in 1954, his M.S. in Forest Pathology from Syracuse
In 1956, and his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology and Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1959.
He spent the following year at the University of Uppsala in Sweden as a United States Public Health Service Postdoctoral Fellow, earning a Filosofie Licensiat in Physiological Botany. From 1960 to 1965 he was a professor and plant pathologist at Yale University; then he joined the faculty at NC State. With his family he returned to Sweden in 1970 and received his Filosofie Doktor in Physiological Botany while on leave from NC State.
Among Dr. Cowling's most notable honors and awards are his election to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1973 and his winning the North Carolina Award in Science that same year. In 1981 he received the O. Max Gardner Award of the University of North Carolina System. Later he served on the Council of the National Academy of Sciences from 1994-1997.
Dear to Ellis Cowling's heart were his family and friends, his colleagues and graduate students, the Chautauqua Institution in western New York, and his family retreat at Kerr Lake in Virginia . Intellectually he was keen on the "moral dimensions of intelligence", and he ultimately championed the Extension and Engagement missions of land grant universities such as NC State University. While his career was expansive, he was a kind and interested man to anyone he met always wanting to learn about them and their lives.
In lieu of flowers, the Cowling family requests that donations be made to the National Academy of Sciences. A Memorial Service will be planned for sometime in the future.