Lewis Edgar Wehmeyer (January 1, 1897, Quincy, Illinois – September 11, 1971, Ann Arbor, Michigan) was an American botanist and mycologist. He gained an international reputation as an expert on the genera Pleospora and Pyrenophora.[1]
After graduating in 1914 from Quincy High School,[2][1] Lewis E. Wehmeyer matriculated in 1916 at the University of Michigan.[3] His academic education was delayed by a year spent in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during WW I.[2] At the University of Michigan he graduated with a B.S. in forestry in 1921 and then matriculated in the department of botany. He held the Emmac J. Cole Fellowship for three years and graduated in 1925 with a Ph.D.[3] His thesis Biologic and phylogenetic study of the stromatic Sphaeriales was supervised by Calvin Henry Kauffman (1869–1931)[4] As a postdoc Wehmeyer held a National Research Council Fellowship at Harvard University for three years.[3] As a postdoc he collected fungi in Nova Scotia[2][1] and in September 1927 in Truro, Nova Scotia married Florence Elaine Prince (called Elaine Prince).[3] She was born in Truro on 22 March 1903.[5]
At the University of Michigan, Wehmeyer was an instructor from 1928 to 1931, an assistant professor from 1931 to 1937, an associate professor from 1937 to 1947, and a full professor from 1947[6] to 1968, when he retired as professor emeritus.[3] He collected many specimens of Pleospora in Wyoming. He was a consultant for mycological specialists in Argentina, Sweden, England, and Canada.[2] His most important work is perhaps his 4th book A world monograph of the genus Pleospora and its segregates, based upon his collection of about 1,200 specimens, of which about 400 are type specimens.[3]
He was elected in 1931 a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[7]
In 1981, a bequest was made in the name of Lewis E. Wehmeyer and Elaine Prince Wehmeyer (1903-1979)[8] for an endowment of a professorial chair in mycology at the University of Michigan.[9] The genus Wehmeyera is named in his honor.[10]
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