In Memoriam: Steven E. Carpenter, 1951 – June 9, 2020

After Steve received his Ph.D., there was no place in the world for him to live but Corvallis, Oregon, but given the scarcity of jobs in mycology, he had to draw on his scientific ingenuity and enthusiasm for fungi to find his way there. He worked at the USDA Forestry Sciences Lab from 1980–1984 looking at the fungi and insects involved in the decay processes in logs in the forests of the Cascades (Carpenter & Kropp 1984, Crawford et al. 1990, Kropp & Carpenter 1984, Seifert & Carpenter 1987). He and Jim Trappe coined the term phoenicoid fungi for the fungi that sporulate on soil or wood after it has been burned (Carpenter & Trappe 1985). He was a co-investigator on an NSF-funded project to study the mycorrhizal fungi that appeared in the years after the eruption of Mt. St. Helens (Carpenter et al. 1987). In 1988 Steve obtained a job as a micro-contamination engineer at Hewlett-Packard, Corvallis, in charge of clean rooms where he was known as Dr. Dust. He also founded and developed a business, Abbey Lane Laboratory, to help solve a broad variety of problems involving fungi. He responded to those working with indoor air fungi and had a contract with a government agency to study the disease caused by Saprolegnia on salmon. After taking early retirement from Hewlett-Packard, he returned to school for an education degree in 2007 and taught forensic science, food science, and biology at Philomath High School in Philomath, Oregon. Later, he and his wife Patty purchased and operated Pacific

Steve Carpenter with 1-year old grandchild Liam in Philomath, Oregon, April, 2019

Analytical Laboratory, a state-certified water, soil, and mold testing lab.

Steve was interested in everything outdoors especially at nearby Bald Hill and Marys Peak, the highest peak in the Coast Range of western Oregon. Seeing a need for field guides for the region, he wrote a locally popular pocket guide to the Wildflowers of Marys Peak Meadows (Carpenter 2009) that has gone through several printings and a second edition as well as Wildflowers of Bald Hill Meadows (Carpenter 2012, 2014). He followed these with a similar book on the common Mushrooms of Marys Peak and Vicinity (Carpenter 2016), which served as the basis for his local mushroom classes and lectures. Steve always wanted to excite others about the natural world and did so with these publications.

When Steve returned to Corvallis, he had met the love of his life Patty with whom he had three children, and they now have grandchildren living nearby. After his retirement, they enjoyed trips with their trailer from Alaska to Iowa and the southwestern U.S., always taking photographs of flowers and mushrooms. Belonging to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Oregon and to the Corvallis Elks Lodge, they had a ready-made community of other members to stay with wherever they went.