{"id":115345,"date":"2020-04-06T16:16:59","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T02:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=115345"},"modified":"2020-04-06T20:09:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T06:09:29","slug":"in-memoriam-art-whistler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/04\/06\/in-memoriam-art-whistler\/","title":{"rendered":"In memoriam: Ethnobotanist and conservationist Art Whistler"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"Art<\/p>\n

Art Whistler<\/strong>, world-renowned botanist and University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa alumnus and lecturer died April 2, 2020 after contracting COVID-19 at the age of 75. He is survived by a sister in Seattle and his adult children, Sean in Vancouver, and Kira Matangi in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Whistler specialized in the tropical plants of Hawaiʻi<\/span> and Pacific Islands. After earning bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in Calif., he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Samoa. He then moved to Hawaiʻi<\/span> and earned his PhD in botany from 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa in 1979, with his research focused on the vegetation of Samoa.<\/p>\n

Whistler\u02bbs robust professional career spanned Hawaiʻi<\/span> and the Pacific. At 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr>, he was a lecturer and adjunct faculty member in botany as well as at the Lyon Arboretum. He held a postdoctoral appointment at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kaua\u02bbi and was a research affiliate at the Bishop Museum. He spent a year as a visiting professor at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.<\/p>\n

\"Art<\/p>\n

Whistler founded a small consulting company in Honolulu, Isle Botanica. Asa consultant, he worked on botanical projects across the Pacific Islands including Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Yap, Chuuk, Guam and the Northern Marianas. He was a prolific author of scientific articles and books focused on plants of Pacific Islands.<\/p>\n

Tributes from around the world remembered Whistler not only for his deep knowledge of plants and the thoroughness of his research, but for his love of the people and communities he worked with and befriended.<\/p>\n

“Samoa has been enriched, the ‘King of the Forest’ has been laid to rest with his boots on, literally and figuratively. We will all hear his footsteps in the forest for years to come,” wrote Tupaemanaia Steve Brown, James Atherton, Alice Campbell and friends.<\/p>\n

“Art will be sorely missed,” wrote 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> President David Lassner<\/strong> in a message to 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa faculty and staff. “He was a scientist, naturalist and educator who touched the lives of students, colleagues and communities throughout the Pacific.”<\/p>\n

\"Art<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art Whistler, world-renowned botanist and 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa alumnus and lecturer died April 3, 2020 after contracting COVID-19 at the age of 75<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[368,756,9],"class_list":["post-115345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-botany","tag-in-memoriam","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115345"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115377,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115345\/revisions\/115377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}