Dr. Ronald L. Hartman, Emeritus Professor of Botany and former Curator of the RM Herbarium at University of Wyoming, died Saturday June 30, 2018, at Hospice of Laramie. He was born Feb. 11, 1945, in LaPorte, Indiana, to Rudolph and Helen Tate Hartman. Ron grew up in Warsaw, Illinois, along the Mississippi River, and he and his brother David built and manned a “Tom Sawyer raft of logs” to float the Mississippi before he graduated high school.
Ron spent 38 years as curator of Rocky Mountain Herbarium and professor of botany at the University of Wyoming, having 52 graduate students throughout his career. Botany and his colleagues were always his first love. He has been honored to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Colorado Native Plant Society (2010), the Certificate of Dedication of the Ronald L. Hartman Excellence in Wyoming Botany by the Wyoming Native Plant Society (2015), the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (2016) and the Wyoming Biodiversity Science Award (2017) for his lifetime of work. During his years as a botanist, he authored and co-authored many plant taxonomy publications and contributed several treatments to the Flora of North America volumes, the Intermountain Flora and the Jepson manual, with two genera (Elaphandra and Hartmaniella) and two species (Hartmaniella sierra and Hartmaniella oxyphylla) named for him.
The Dr. Ron Hartman Memorial Fund has been set up at the Wyoming Community Foundation to benefit the Pilot Hill Project, in recognition of Ron’s love for the Pilot Hill Classic, Wyoming’s oldest footrace, and his deep appreciation for the Pilot Hill landscape and its conservation. To contribute to the Dr. Ron Hartman Memorial Fund, go to: www.pilothill.org and click on donate, or you can make a check out to: The Pilot Hill Project Ron Hartman Fund and mail it to: Wyoming Community Foundation, 1472 N. 5thSt., Suite 201, Laramie, WY 82072.
More details on Ron’s life and legacy can be found at: https://www.laramieboomerang.com/obituaries/ronald-l-hartman/article_03665cec-8245-11e8-b146-6f37c1ba34eb.html