Elsie Quarterman, a plant ecologist and professor of biology emerita at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, died on June 9 in Nashville. She was 103 years old.
A native of Valdosta, Georgia, Dr. Quarterman graduated from Georgia State Woman’s College, which is now Valdosta State University. She earned a master’s degree in botany and a Ph.D. in plant ecology at Duke University. She joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 1944 as an instructor in biology. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1948, to associate professor in 1952, and to full professor in 1966. She was the first woman to chair an academic department at Vanderbilt.
In 1969 Professor Quarterman discovered living specimens of the Tennessee coneflower. The species was thought to be extinct.
Professor Quarterman retired from teaching in 1976.