A Biography of Alfred Traverse

Professor Alfred (‘Al’) Traverse passed away following a long illness at 90 years of age on September 15 ^th 2015 at Juniper Village, State College, Pennsylvania, USA. With his death, the twin sciences of palaeobotany and palynology have lost one of their most influential and productive of practitioners and teachers. He had a stellar student career, was a coal petrologist, an industrial palynologist and held parallel positions in the Episcopal (Anglican) church. However he is principally defined by his 30-year tenure as a professor at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) from 1966 to his full retirement in 1996. Al was an incredibly diverse scientist; the topics of his numerous research papers are highly eclectic. He demonstrated a truly polymathic approach to palaeobotany and palynology. Most notably, he published two editions of the only single-author textbook ever published in English on pre-Quaternary palynology. This short article seeks to celebrate and document Al's fascinating, fulfilling, long and productive life, hence it is designated as both a biography and an obituary. The authors have drawn on their collective memories, Al's publications, online information and other obituaries such as Anonymous and Rich & Strother.