Frank Samuel Crosswhite (1940-2008), botanist.
American botanist at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Arizona. Frank S. Crosswhite was interested in the plants of dry regions and was the founding editor of the journal Desert Plants, as well as first present of the Arizona Native Plants Society. Born in Atchison, Kansas, he moved to Arizona in 1948. Crosswhite received a PhD in botany from the University of Wisconsin and began to teach at this institution before returning to Arizona to work at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum (in Tonto National Forest, near Phoenix) as curator of botany. While simultaneously working for the University of Arizona he made great advances at the arboretum, particularly in the development of educational displays, and gave tours for public groups.
As a taxonomist Crosswhite specialised in the Plantaginaceae genus Penstemon Schmidel. and authored many papers on this subject, as well as on the cacti and succulents and on desert ecology. He was also interested in the history of botany and the cultural significance of native plants, writing on this subject in the American Southwest. Based in Tucson, he lived there with wife Carol Diane (neé Chaney) and two sons until his retirement to Queen Valley in 2002. He died in Phoenix at the age of 68, after a long illness.
IPNI standard form: Crosswh.
