Robert Aycock

Robert Aycock of Blacksburg, Virginia, passed away on Thursday, December 3, 2009, just 20 days shy of his 90th birthday. Beloved father, grandfather, husband, uncle, and colleague, he is remembered for his generosity, deep affections, and kindness--and for his incomparable dry wit. A scientist with a keen appreciation for history and literature, he was a man of broad reading and interests. He loved family and family roots. He was interested in the human condition. Robert Aycock was born on a small farm in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana on December 23, 1919 to the late Seaborn Ray Aycock and Mary Amanda Hightower Aycock. He grew up during the years of the Great Depression, graduated from Louisiana State University in 1936 and continued his education at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. During the World War II years, he served in the Army Medical Corps, first in a detachment servicing a regiment of Coast Guard Artillery and later as a laboratory technician at Lovell General Hospital in Fort Devens, Massachusetts. In 1947, Bob returned to North Carolina State and undertook a PhD program in Plant Pathology. After graduation in 1949, his first employment was at Edisto Experiment Station, a branch of Clemson College, in Blackville, South Carolina. He returned to North Carolina in 1955 as a plant pathologist at the Horticultural Crops Research Station at Castle Hayne, where he conducted research of diseases of field-grown ornamental bulb crops. In 1963, he returned for a part-time extension position on the Raleigh campus, assuming major responsibility for the Plant Disease Clinic, while continuing research on the diseases of ornamentals. Bob served North Carolina State University as head of the Department of Plant Pathology, from 1973-84. In this capacity, he took a special interest in the welfare of graduate students. He and his wife tendered warm hospitality to generations of these students, sending them off to conferences with home-made food, hosting gatherings for them, and keeping up with their achievements years after their departure from NC State. From 1969-72 Bob was editor-in-chief of the major journal in the field, Phytopathology. He served as President of the American Phytopathological Society in 1976, and in 1979 he was named a Fellow of the society. He was selected Outstanding Plant Pathologist by the APS Southern Division in 1984. Bob was preceded in death by his beloved wife Elsie, his brothers, Seaborn Ray Aycock, Paul Aycock, Marion Aycock, and sister, Elice Aycock Larance. He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Paul Metz of Blacksburg, his daughter and son-in-law, Suzanne Aycock and Virgil Jefferson Foutch of Bahama, North Carolina, his grandchildren Robert and Estella Metz of Blacksburg and Emma and Jenny King of Bahama, and many beloved nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at Blacksburg Presbyterian Church at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, December 9. Bob's friends and family in Raleigh, North Carolina will gather to celebrate his life the week of January 4th at a time to be announced. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Elsie J. and Robert Aycock Student Travel Award, American Phytopathological Foundation, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, Minnesota 55121.