O. F. Cook

Orator Fuller Cook Jr. (May 28, 1867 – April 23, 1949) was an American botanist, entomologist, and agronomist, known for his work on cotton and rubber cultivation and for coining the term "speciation" to describe the process by which new species arise from existing ones. He published nearly 400 articles on topics such as genetics, evolution, sociology, geography, and anthropology.

Early life and education

Cook was born in Clyde, New York in 1867, the son of Orator Fuller and Eliza (née Hookway) Cook. His father was a stonemason from England who had immigrated in 1855. Orator Jr. grew up in Clyde, taught biology for two years before entering university, and graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A. in 1890. He subsequently worked as a biology instructor there the following year.

Career

In 1891 Cook became a special agent of the New York State Colonization Society. He worked in Liberia, and in 1896, he was elected president of Liberia College. He held that position until 1898. That year he joined the United States Department of Agriculture as a plant scientist, and eventually became Principal Botanist and traveled throughout the world investigating crop species for the United States government. With Guy N. Collins, he made collecting trips to Puerto Rico in 1899 and 1901. Cook specialized in cotton and rubber plants and the classification of palms, particularly the palms of Hispaniola. He published almost four hundred books and articles during his career, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science by Syracuse University in 1930. Cook served as Honorary Assistant Curator of Cryptogamic Collections at the United States National Herbarium from 1898 until 1948. Together with Lucien Marcus Underwood he was editor of the exsiccata work An Illustrated Century of Fungi with 100 specimens (1889) and the exsiccata work Hepaticae Americanae with 200 specimens (1887–99).