Palemon Howard Dorsett

Who was Palemon Howard Dorsett?

Palemon Howard Dorsett was an American horticulturalist employed by the USDA. Born April 21, 1862, in Carlinville, Macoupin County, Illinois, he gained a BA from the University of Missouri in 1884, and joined the USDA Section of Plant Pathology seven years later. He left the USDA in 1907 to found his own horticultural business in Alexandria, Virginia, but rejoined the Department in 1909. In 1913 Dorsett began his first foreign expedition, to Brazil, with Archibald Dixon Shamel and Wilson Popenoe. Later expeditions took him to Panama, Manchuria, Ceylon, culminating in 1928 in the Dorsett-Morse Oriental Agricultural Exploration Expedition to Japan, Korea, and China. Returning to the USA in 1932, he retired from the USDA, but joined the Allison Vincent Armour agricultural expedition to the British West Indies and Guianas the same year. In 1936 he was awarded the 13th Frank N. Meyer Medal by the Council of the American Genetic Association for "distinguished actions related to the collection, preservation, or utilization of germplasm resources".

Dorsett died aged 80 in a Washington, D. C. nursing home on April 1, 1943. In contrast to his illustrious career, his private life had been blighted by the premature deaths of his wife Mary Virginia and two of his daughters. His only son, James, with whom he travelled to China in 1924-25, died in 1927.