Richard Paul Korf

Korf, Richard Paul

Richard Paul Korf, age 91, died August 20, 2016 at home in Ithaca, NY, leaving behind his wife, Kumi, with whom he was enchanted for over 50 years, and his adored children Noni, Mia, Ian, and Mario, and grandchildren Maïa Vidal, Zak Korf, Zephyr Gettelman, Mason Korf, and Matéa LeBeau. Dick's academic life began at Cornell University in 1941 at the age of 16, and he received his Ph.D. in Mycology from the Department of Plant Pathology in 1950. He taught one year in the Botany Department of Glasgow University (Scotland) before returning to his alma mater where he continued in his teaching and research until his retirement as an Emeritus Professor in 1992. Dick was elected President of the Mycological Society of America, received two Fulbright awards (Japan and Belgium) and an NSF Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship (Japan). He was offered but declined a Guggenheim Fellowship, and has received several honorary awards for his teaching and research.

Dick was particularly proud of his over 20 Ph.D. students; his production of a chapter on Discomycetes (the group he spent most of his research life exploring) for the book series The Fungi, an Advanced Treatise; his collaboration with a Belgian colleague to create the groundbreaking new journal, Mycotaxon, devoted to the taxonomy and nomenclature of fungi (130+ volumes published in its first 42 years); his involvement in the editing and successful publication of a reprint edition of Émile Boudier's Icones Mycologicae (4 volumes plus a new 5th volume); and his editing and publishing of the "lost" book manuscript, Fungi of China, by S. C. Teng.

Although Dick published over 400 scientific papers, including books and book chapters, his lifelong avocation involved theatre, both in acting and directing at Cornell and in local theatre organizations, including his appointment for one year as Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences. He realized a 20-year dream in recording in 2006 an audio-book version of Stephen Vincent Benét's book-length poem, John Brown's Body. He was active locally as an anti-war activist and in politics as Chairman of the Tompkins County Liberal Party and as a Vice-Chairman of the State Party, was a member of the Ithaca City Planning Board, and served on many Cornell University committees.

Donations to the Dr. Richard P. Korf Graduate Student Excellence Fund may be made via this site: http://tinyurl.com/RPKorf. A public celebration of his life is planned for December 18, 2016, at Barnes Hall, Cornell, at 2pm.